The logic of Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) is im plemented in most commercial production planning software tools and is commonly accepted by practitioners. However, these peo ple are not satisfied with production planning and complain about long lead times, high work-in-process, and backlogging. As many researchers have pointed out, the reason for these shortcomings is inherent to the methods that are used. The research community is thus eager to find more sophisticated approaches. T ...