A Lot Sizing and Scheduling Approach on Non-Identical Parallel Machines for Cement Grinding Process Considering Process-Specific Characteristics

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ege University, Izmir

2 Department of Operations Management and Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ege University

Abstract

Integrating the lot sizing and scheduling problems for improving capacity utilization in process industries is crucial. In order to deal with this problem realistically and to obtain applicable schedules, it is a prerequisite to consider the typical characteristics of the industry under consideration. From this point of view, in this study, the lot sizing and scheduling problem in cement grinding, a multi-product, multi-period optimization problem with non-identical parallel machines, is addressed by considering the unique and industry-specific characteristics of the process. Besides applicability, it is aimed to create schedules that minimize total costs, including inventory holding, production, electricity, and lost sales. A lot sizing and scheduling model (LSM) based on the General Lot Sizing Problem (GLSP) and a capacity control model (CCM) derived from LSM has been developed for the considered problem with these objectives. The proposed approach based on the cyclical running of LSM and CCM has been applied for one year using the real data of a firm operating in the cement industry. The performance of this approach has been evaluated by comparing it with the firm's realized performance during that year. As a result, the proposed approach has significantly reduced inventory holding costs by 47.51%, production during setups by 62.54%, production after setups by 1.49%, and electrical energy by 8.65%.

Keywords


Akkerman R. and Van Donk D.P. (2009). Analyzing scheduling in the food-processing industry: structure and tasks.  Cognition, Technology & Work, Vol. 11(3), pp. 215-226.
Almada-Lobo, B., Clark, A., Guimarães, L., Figueira, G. and Amorim, P. (2015). Industrial insights into lot sizing and scheduling modeling. Pesquisa Operacional, Vol. 35(3), pp. 439-464.
Almada-Lobo, B., Klabjan, D., Antónia Carravilla, M. and Oliveira, J. F. (2007). Single machine multi-product capacitated lot sizing with sequence-dependent setups, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 45(20), pp. 4873-4894. 
Alves, F. D. F., Nogueira, T. H., Henriques, R. D. S. and Castro, P. V. D. (2016). Integrated lot sizing and production scheduling formulations: an application in a refractory cement industry. Gestão & Produção, Vol. 23(1), pp. 204-218. 
Artigues, C., Lopez, P. And Hait, A. (2013). The energy scheduling problem: Industrial case-study and constraint propagation techniques. International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 143(1), pp. 13-23. 
Asad, M. W. A. (2011). A heuristic approach to long-range production planning of cement quarry operations. Production Planning & Control, Vol. 22(4), pp. 353-364. 
Ashayeri, J., Teelen, A. And Selen, W. J. (1995). Computer integrated manufacturing in the chemical industry: Theory & practice. CentER Discussion Paper, Vol. 1995-7. 
Atmaca, A. and Kanoglu, M. (2012), Reducing energy consumption of a raw mill in cement industry, Energy, Vol. 42(1), pp. 261-269. 
Atmaca, A., & Yumrutaş, R. (2014). Thermodynamic and exergoeconomic analysis of a cement plant: Part II–Application. Energy conversion and management, Vol. 79, pp. 799-808.
Baldea, M., Du, J., Park, J. and Harjunkoski, I. (2015). Integrated production scheduling and model predictive control of continuous processes. AIChE Journal, Vol. 61(12), pp. 4179-4190. 
Camargo, V. C. B., Toledo, F. M. B. and Almada-Lobo, B. (2012). Three time-based scale formulations for the two-stage lot sizing and scheduling in process industries. Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 63(11), pp. 1613-1630.
Carvalho, D. M., & Nascimento, M. C. (2022). Hybrid matheuristics to solve the integrated lot sizing and scheduling problem on parallel machines with sequence-dependent and non-triangular setup. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 296(1), pp.158-173.
Castro, P. M., & Mostafaei, H. (2019). Batch-centric scheduling formulation for treelike pipeline systems with forbidden product sequences. Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol. 122, pp. 2-18.
Castro, P. M., Harjunkoski, I. and Grossmann, I. E. (2009). New continuous-time scheduling formulation for continuous plants under variable electricity cost. Industrial & Engineering chemistry research, Vol. 48(14), pp. 6701-6714. 
Castro, P. M., Harjunkoski, I., & Grossmann, I. E. (2011). Optimal scheduling of continuous plants with energy constraints. Computers & Chemical engineering, Vol. 35(2), pp. 372-387.
Clark, A., Almada-Lobo, B. and Almeder, C. (2011). Lot sizing and scheduling: industrial extensions and research opportunities. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 49(9), pp. 2457-2461.
Crawford, S., MacCarthy, B. L., Wilson, J. R. and Vernon, C. (1999). Investigating the work of industrial schedulers through field study. Cognition, Technology & Work, Vol. 1(2), pp. 63-77. 
de Matta, R. (2018). Scheduling a manufacturing process with restrictions on resource availability. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 56(19), pp. 6412-6429.
de Prada, C., Mazaeda, R., & Cristea, S. P. (2019). Receding horizon scheduling of processes with shared resources. Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol. 125, pp. 1-12.
Drexl, A. And Kimms, A. (1997). Lot sizing and scheduling—survey and extensions. European Journal of operational research, Vol. 99(2), pp. 221-235.
Ekinci, E., Kazancoglu, Y. And Mangla, S. K. (2020). Using system dynamics to assess the environmental management of cement industry in streaming data context. Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 715, 136948.
Fang, K., Uhan, N., Zhao, F. and Sutherland, J. W. (2011). A new approach to scheduling in manufacturing for power consumption and carbon footprint reduction. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 30(4), pp. 234-240. 
Figueira G., Santos M. O. and Almada-Lobo B. (2013). A hybrid VNS approach for the short-term production planning and scheduling: A case study in the pulp and paper industry. Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 40(7), pp. 1804-1818.
Fleischmann B. and Meyr H. (1997). The general lotsizing and scheduling problem. OR Spektrum, Vol. 19(1), pp. 11-21.
Gajic, D., Hadera, H., Onofri, L., Harjunkoski, I., & Di Gennaro, S. (2017). Implementation of an integrated production and electricity optimization system in melt shop. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 155, pp. 39-46.
Gao, T., Shen, L., Shen, M., Liu, L., & Chen, F. (2016). Analysis of material flow and consumption in cement production process. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 112, pp. 553-565.
Georgiadis, G. P., Kopanos, G. M., Karkaris, A., Ksafopoulos, H. and Georgiadis, M. C. (2019). Optimal production scheduling in the dairy industries. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 58(16), pp. 6537-6550.
Gerami, N., Ghasemi, A., Lotfi, A., Kaigutha, L. G., & Marzband, M. (2021). Energy consumption modeling of production process for industrial factories in a day ahead scheduling with demand response. Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, Vol. 25, 100420.
Gutiérrez, A. S., Eras, J. J. C., Gaviria, C. A., Van Caneghem, J., & Vandecasteele, C. (2017). Improved selection of the functional unit in environmental impact assessment of cement. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 168, pp. 463-473.
Haksöz Ç. and Pinedo M. (2011). Economic lot scheduling with resources in parallel. International Journal of Production Research, 49(9), pp. 2625-2641.
Hans, E. And van de Velde, S. (2011). The lot sizing and scheduling of sand casting operations. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 49(9), pp. 2481-2499. 
ICR Research (2015). Best Energy Consumption, available at http://www.cemnet.com/Articles/story/156121/best-energy-consumption.html (accessed 1 June 2015)
Jankovic, A., Valery, W. and Davis, E. (2004). Cement grinding optimisation. Minerals Engineering, Vol. 17(11-12), pp. 1075-1081. 
Jans, R. A. F. and Degraeve, Z. (2004). An industrial extension of the discrete lot-sizing and scheduling problem. IIE transactions, Vol. 36(1), pp. 47-58. 
Jovan, V. (2002). The specifics of production scheduling in process industries. 2002 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, IEEE ICIT'02, Vol. 2, pp. 1049-1054. 
Kallrath, J. (2002). Planning and scheduling in the process industry, OR Spectrum. Vol. 24(3), pp. 219-250. 
Koçlar A. (2005). The General Lot Sizing and Scheduling Problem with Sequence Dependent Changeovers. Master's thesis, Middle East Technical University Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences.
Koçlar A. and Süral H. (2005). A note on The general lot sizing and scheduling problem. OR Spectrum, Vol. 27(1), pp. 145-146.
Krupp, J. A. (1997). Managing demand variations with safety stock. The Journal of Business Forecasting, Vol. 16(2), pp. 8-13.
Kubur Özbel, B., & Baykasoğlu, A. (2023). A matheuristic based solution approach for the general lot sizing and scheduling problem with sequence dependent changeovers and back ordering. International Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations, Vol. 14(1), pp.115-128.
Madlool, N. A., Saidur, R., Hossain, M. S. and Rahim, N. A. (2011), A critical review on energy use and savings in the cement industries. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 15(4), pp. 2042-2060. 
Marinelli F., Nenni M. E. and Sforza A. (2007). Capacitated lot sizing and scheduling with parallel machines and shared buffers: A case study in a packaging Company. Annals of Operations Research, Vol. 150(1), pp. 177- 192.
Martínez, K. P., Morabito, R. and Toso, E. A. V. (2018). A coupled process configuration, lot-sizing and scheduling model for production planning in the molded pulp industry. International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 204, pp. 227-243.
Mediouni, A., Zufferey, N., Rached, M., & Cheikhrouhou, N. (2022, July). The multi-period multi-level capacitated lot-sizing and scheduling problem in the dairy soft-drink industry. In Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal (Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 272-284). Taylor & Francis.
Mejeoumov, G. G. (2007). Improved cement quality and grinding efficiency by means of closed mill circuit modeling. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, Texas A&M University. 
Mendez, C. A., Cerdá, J., Grossmann, I. E., Harjunkoski, I., and Fahl, M. (2006). State-of-the-art review of optimization methods for short-term scheduling of batch processes. Computers & chemical engineering, Vol. 30(6-7), pp. 913-946.
Meyr H. (2000). Simultaneous lotsizing and scheduling by combining local search with dual reoptimization. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 120(2), pp. 311-326.
Meyr, H. (2002). Simultaneous lotsizing and scheduling on parallel machines. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 139(2), pp. 277-292. 
Mitra, S., Grossmann, I. E., Pinto, J. M. and Arora, N. (2012). Optimal production planning under time-sensitive electricity prices for continuous power-intensive processes. Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol. 38, pp. 171-184. 
Napoleone, A., Pozzetti, A., Macchi, M. and Andersen, R. (2021). Time to be responsive in the process industry: a literature-based analysis of trends of change, solutions and challenges. Production Planning & Control, pp. 1-14.
Polon, P. E., Alves, A. F., Olivo, J. E., Paraíso, P. R., & Andrade, C. M. G. (2018). Production optimization in sausage industry based on the demand of the products. Journal of Food Process Engineering, Vol. 41(2), e12644.
Rehman, S. U., & Asad, M. W. A. (2010). A mixed-integer linear programming (milp) model for short-range production scheduling of cement quarry operations. Asia-Pacific journal of operational research, Vol.27(03), pp. 315-333.
Schneider, M., Romer, M., Tschudin, M. And Bolio, H. (2011). Sustainable cement production—present and future. Cement and concrete research, Vol. 41(7), pp. 642-650. 
Seeanner F. and Meyr H. (2013). Multi-stage simultaneous lot-sizing and scheduling for flow line production. OR Spectrum, Vol. 35(1), pp. 33–73.
Stadtler, H. and Sahling, F. (2013). A lot-sizing and scheduling model for multi-stage flow lines with zero lead times.European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 225(3), pp. 404-419. 
Stefansdottir, B., Grunow, M., & Akkerman, R. (2017). Classifying and modeling setups and cleanings in lot sizing and scheduling. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 261(3), pp. 849-865.
Swanepoel, J. A., Mathews, E. H., Vosloo, J. and Liebenberg, L. (2014). Integrated energy optimisation for the cement industry: A case study perspective. Energy conversion and management, Vol. 78, pp. 765-775. 
Tang, Q. and Wang, Y. (2022a). Multiobjective lot sizing and scheduling of multiproduct switching production in the process industry considering uncertain market information under mass customization. IEEE Access, Vol. 10, pp. 74747-74764.
Tang, Q. and Wang, Y. (2022b). A Model Predictive Control for Lot Sizing and Scheduling Optimization in the Process Industry under Bidirectional Uncertainty of Production Ability and Market Demand. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, Vol. 2022.
Transchel S., Minner S., Kallrath J., Löhndorf N. and Eberhard U. (2011). A hybrid general lot-sizing and scheduling formulation for a production process with a two-stage product structure. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 49(9), pp. 2463-2480.
Trattner, A. L., Herbert-Hansen, Z. N. L., & Hvam, L. (2018). Product Wheels for Scheduling in the Baking Industry: A Case Study. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering, Vol. 6(2), pp. 65-78.
Van Oss, H. G. and Padovani, A. C. (2003). Cement manufacture and the environment part II: environmental challenges and opportunities. Journal of Industrial Ecology, Vol. 7(1), pp.93-126.
Vu, T., Bao, T., Drebenstedt, C., Pham, H., Nguyen, H., & Nguyen, D. (2021). Optimisation of long-term quarry production scheduling under geological uncertainty to supply raw materials to a cement plant. Mining Technology, Vol. 130(3), pp. 146-158.
Vujanic, R., Mariéthoz, S., Goulart, P. and Morari, M. (2012). Robust integer optimization and scheduling problems for large electricity consumers. 2012 American Control Conference (ACC), pp. 3108-3113, IEEE. 
Wei, W., Amorim, P., Guimarães, L. and Almada-Lobo, B. (2019). Tackling perishability in multi-level process industries. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 57(17), pp. 5604-5623.
Wu, X., Shen, X., & Cui, Q. (2018). Multi-objective flexible flow shop scheduling problem considering variable processing time due to renewable energy. Sustainability, Vol. 10(3), 841.