Production planning and scheduling problem of continuous parallel lines with demand uncertainty and different production capacities

Abstract

Abstract Production planning and scheduling problems are highly interdependent as scheduling provides optimum allocation of resources and planning is an optimum utilization of these allocated resources to serve multiple customers. Researchers have solved production planning and scheduling problems by the sequential method. But, in this case, the solution obtained by the production planning problem may not be feasible for scheduling method. Hence, production planning and scheduling problems must be solved simultaneously. Therefore, in this work, a mathematical model is developed to integrate production planning and scheduling problems. The solution to this integrated planning and scheduling problem is attempted by using a discrete artificial bee colony (DABC) algorithm. To speed up the DABC algorithm, a k-means clustering algorithm is used in the initial population generation phase. This k-means clustering algorithm will help to converge the algorithm in lesser time. A real-life case study of a soap manufacturing industry is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. An objective function to minimize overall cost, which comprises the processing cost, material cost, utility cost, and changeover cost, is considered. The results obtained by using DABC algorithm are compared with those obtained by CPLEX software. There is a saving of ₹2 23 324 for weeks 1–4 in overall cost compared with the results obtained by using CPLEX software.