Application of multi-stage scheduling

A simplified food factory model has been derived from a medium size ice cream manufacturing plant. This is done by building a multi-stage scheduling model which describes the infra-structure of the factory, which products are being produced and how the plant is operated. Key has been to translate complexity of the plant (and the operations) into a simplified, but realistic, multi-stage scheduling model. This model has been implemented in commercial available software. The production schedule could not be derived automatically, but needed manual intervention. Scheduling the factory as a whole, the available overall capacity of the factory can be increased significantly. The integrated factory schedule squeezes 10-30% additional capacity out of the factory.