This paper addresses the aggregate production planning problem with different operational constraints, including production capacity, workforce level, factory locations, machine utilization, storage space and other resource limitations. Three production plants in North America and one in China are considered simultaneously. A pre-emptive goal programming model is developed to maximize profit, minimize repairing cost and maximize machine utilization of the Chinese production plant hierarchically. A set of data from a surface and materials science company is used to test the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed model. Results illustrate the flexibility and the robustness of the proposed model by adjusting goal priorities with respect to importance of each objective and the aspiration level with respect to desired target values.  2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.