General framework for automated manufacturing systems: multiple hoists scheduling solution

A. AGUIRRE; C.A. MÉNDEZ; A. GARCÍA-SANCHEZ; M. ORTEGA-MIER; P. CASTRO

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS

The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering

Lugar: Milan; Año: 2013 vol. 32 p. 1381 - 1387

1974-9791

This work presents a generic MILP-based framework for the scheduling of Hoist transportation devices in a complex Automated Manufacturing System. The main contribution of this approach relies on the possibility to tackle multiple hoists in a multiproduct multistage batch process under different production schemes considering: heterogeneous production recipes, multiple units per production stage, possible recycle flows, sequence-dependent transfers and flexible processing times. The effectiveness of this approach was tested in a real industrial application example which was solved with acceptable computational effort.