Abstract
A simple heuristic is proposed for multi-level lot-sizing problems where there is a bottleneck. Previous methods to solve this problem have formulated the problem as an integer programming problem and solved the problem using a Lagrangian relaxation embedded within the branch and bound procedure. In this paper we suggest that items to be produced can be grouped into two types and a simple but efficient heuristic can be used to determine the production quantities required. A program was developed to compute production levels and was found to require only a small fraction of the computer time required by the full integer programming approach, and to produce solutions of reasonable quality. The heuristic is simple to implement.