Planning and scheduling packaging lines in food industry

Abstract

This paper concerns the development and implementation of a pilot Decision Support System for the bottleneck packaging facilities of a large dairy company. The planning and scheduling problem has been decomposed into two levels: a tactical and operational control level. On the tactical level a feasible (daily) ‘master production schedule’ of the orderbook is determined. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming model is basis for making this schedule. On the operational control level two sequencing subproblems have to be solved. For the solution of these subproblems well-known heuristics have been used.