As organizations move from creating plans for individual production lines to entire supply chains it is increasingly important to recognize that planning decisions impact the quality of parts and products and, consequently, the production output. The consideration of product characteristics, e.g., fixed or uncertain lifetimes, is vital to production systems dealing with products that deteriorate over time. Products that pass their useful lifetime can impose high costs due to inventory loss or rework of items. This paper surveys the recent trends in modeling deterioration in the various fields of production planning and gives an extensive overview of the subject.