Tank-Based Production Planning With Integrated Lot Sizing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing production planning methods for tank-based production in the beverage industry fail to optimize batch sizes effectively, leading to distorted optimization results that impact shelf life, capacity, and cost due to the interdependence between packaging operations and tank storage, particularly when using linear programming.
Innovation Solution
A multi-level tank-based production system with a synchronized and integrated lot-sizing approach, utilizing a tank-based production planner that includes a server with modules for customizable post-heuristic production planning, sensors for real-time monitoring, and a flexible-capacity method to optimize tank utilization and minimize spoilage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If linear programming is used for production planning, then optimization is achieved, but the ability to plan production in continuous variables is limited due to discrete batch constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the production planning problem from discrete batch quantities to continuous volume variables. The lot-sizing model uses continuous variables representing volumes of materials in tanks and packaging rates, allowing linear programming to operate without discrete constraints. This parameter transformation enables true continuous optimization while maintaining mathematical tractability.
2Productivity
If post-process lot sizing is applied, then batch production is achieved, but distorted optimization results occur impacting shelf life, capacity, and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates lot-sizing considerations directly into the linear programming formulation rather than applying them as a post-processing step. The model simultaneously optimizes production volumes, tank inventory levels, and packaging rates while respecting minimum lot sizes and shelf life constraints. This preliminary integration prevents the distortion of optimization results that occurs when lot-sizing is applied after linear programming.
3Adaptability or versatility
If tank storage is used for beverage materials, then production flexibility is improved, but spoilage risk increases due to extended storage duration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates shelf life constraints and spoilage risks directly into the linear programming model as feedback mechanisms. The optimization considers the age of materials in tanks and adjusts production schedules to minimize storage duration. The model balances the benefits of tank storage flexibility against the costs of potential spoilage, dynamically determining optimal inventory levels and production timing based on product freshness requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of a multi-level tank-based production system. Embodiments include planning data for one or more finished goods, the one or more finished goods produced from one or more semi-finished goods stored in one or more tanks, identifying, from the planning data, planned production orders for the one or more finished goods in each time bucket of a planning period, modifying the planned production orders to satisfy lot-size requirements of production operations of the one or more finished goods and time and tank capacity constraints of the one or more semi-finished goods, generating a tank-based production plan based, at least in part, on the modified planned production orders, and producing the one or more finished goods according to the tank-based production plan.