Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem

Continuous multiproduct plants allow the production of several products (product grades). During grade transitions off-spec products are produced. The economic losses and the environmental impact of these transitions are sequence dependent, so the amount of off-grade products can be minimized by sch...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Király, B. Farsang, T. Chován, M. Christidou, E. Karlopoulos, J. Abonyi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 2014-08-01
Series:Chemical Engineering Transactions
Online Access:https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/5583
_version_ 1819169554115330048
author A. Király
B. Farsang
T. Chován
M. Christidou
E. Karlopoulos
J. Abonyi
author_facet A. Király
B. Farsang
T. Chován
M. Christidou
E. Karlopoulos
J. Abonyi
author_sort A. Király
collection DOAJ
description Continuous multiproduct plants allow the production of several products (product grades). During grade transitions off-spec products are produced. The economic losses and the environmental impact of these transitions are sequence dependent, so the amount of off-grade products can be minimized by scheduling the sequence of the production of different products. Applying parallel production sites (m) increases the flexibility of multiproduct plants. Since market demands are changing, the production cycles of these sites should be re-scheduled in certain intervals. Therefore, our task is to design m production cycles that contains all required products by minimizing the total length of grade transitions. Most production scheduling problems such as the one considered in this paper are NP-hard. Our goal is to solve realistic problem instances in no more than a couple of minutes. We show that this problem can be considered as a multiple traveling salesmen problem (mTSP), where the distances between the products are based on the time or costs of the grade transitions. The resulted mTSP has been solved by multi-chromosome based genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithm was implemented in MATLAB and is available at the website of the authors (www.abonyilab.com). For demonstration purposes, we present an illustrative example. The results show that multiproduct multisite scheduling problems can be effectively handled as mTSPs, and the proposed problem-specific representation based genetic algorithm can be used in wide range of optimization problems.
first_indexed 2024-12-22T19:21:20Z
format Article
id doaj.art-6cbd693e37b34842859fd6a49c866d10
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2283-9216
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-22T19:21:20Z
publishDate 2014-08-01
publisher AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.
record_format Article
series Chemical Engineering Transactions
spelling doaj.art-6cbd693e37b34842859fd6a49c866d102022-12-21T18:15:22ZengAIDIC Servizi S.r.l.Chemical Engineering Transactions2283-92162014-08-013910.3303/CET1439282Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman ProblemA. KirályB. FarsangT. ChovánM. ChristidouE. KarlopoulosJ. AbonyiContinuous multiproduct plants allow the production of several products (product grades). During grade transitions off-spec products are produced. The economic losses and the environmental impact of these transitions are sequence dependent, so the amount of off-grade products can be minimized by scheduling the sequence of the production of different products. Applying parallel production sites (m) increases the flexibility of multiproduct plants. Since market demands are changing, the production cycles of these sites should be re-scheduled in certain intervals. Therefore, our task is to design m production cycles that contains all required products by minimizing the total length of grade transitions. Most production scheduling problems such as the one considered in this paper are NP-hard. Our goal is to solve realistic problem instances in no more than a couple of minutes. We show that this problem can be considered as a multiple traveling salesmen problem (mTSP), where the distances between the products are based on the time or costs of the grade transitions. The resulted mTSP has been solved by multi-chromosome based genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithm was implemented in MATLAB and is available at the website of the authors (www.abonyilab.com). For demonstration purposes, we present an illustrative example. The results show that multiproduct multisite scheduling problems can be effectively handled as mTSPs, and the proposed problem-specific representation based genetic algorithm can be used in wide range of optimization problems.https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/5583
spellingShingle A. Király
B. Farsang
T. Chován
M. Christidou
E. Karlopoulos
J. Abonyi
Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
Chemical Engineering Transactions
title Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
title_full Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
title_fullStr Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
title_full_unstemmed Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
title_short Minimization of Off-Grade Production in Multisite Multiproduct Plants by Solving Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem
title_sort minimization of off grade production in multisite multiproduct plants by solving multiple traveling salesman problem
url https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/5583
work_keys_str_mv AT akiraly minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem
AT bfarsang minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem
AT tchovan minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem
AT mchristidou minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem
AT ekarlopoulos minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem
AT jabonyi minimizationofoffgradeproductioninmultisitemultiproductplantsbysolvingmultipletravelingsalesmanproblem