Integrated Transportation and Packaging Problem Modeling and Application

Abstract

The Hybrid Flow Shop scheduling (HFSS) is a complex problem observed in many real-life problems and usually involves a work environment with multiple parallel machines at each stage. This study deals with a scheduling problem that integrates transportation and packaging operations. The problem originates from a real-life problem at a leading global rim manufacturing company headquartered in Turkey. We propose a novel solution method which is able to create a schedule for all stages while minimizing the total weighted earliness of orders. The studied problem differs from classical HFSS problem in a number of ways therefore an improved mathematical model to accommodate current problem and system constraints is developed. The new two-stage as Mixed-Integer Programming model (MIP) is constructed verified and validated. As the problem is NP-hard a novel rule-based heuristic algorithm for two stages is developed. The performances of the heuristic algorithm and the mathematical model are compared using real-life data from the company. Based on the results from the experimentation proposed heuristic algorithm performs very well in a significantly shorter computational time. Moreover a user-friendly decision support system (DSS) is created and both solution methods are embedded in this DSS for the implementation at the company. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.