Production scheduling of a large-scale industrial batch plant. I. Short-term and medium-term scheduling

The medium-term production scheduling of a multipurpose, multiproduct industrial batch plant is modeled using a novel mathematical framework. The methodology consists of the decomposition of the whole scheduling period into successive short horizons of a few days. A decomposition model is implemented to determine each short horizon and the corresponding products to be included. Then, a novel continuous-time formulation for short-term scheduling of batch processes with multiple intermediate due dates is applied to each short horizon selected, leading to a large-scale mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. The scheduling model includes over 80 pieces of equipment and can take into account the processing recipes of hundreds of different products. Several characteristics of the production plant are incorporated into the scheduling model and actual plant data are used to model all parameters. Two different modes of operation are presented along with representative production schedules to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed formulation.