Dynamic Scheduling of Production and Inter-Facilities Logistic Systems

This paper addresses the integrated production and transportation scheduling problem (PTSP) along global supply chains. An optimal solution for the PTSP requires solving simultaneously the production scheduling for all production facilities and the routing problems for the inter-facilities transportation of intermediate products. Moreover, in dynamic environments information concerning logistic capabilities and employment level has to be appropriately utilised to determine most effective production plans. Since the underlying mathematical programs are NP-hard, an excessive computational effort is required even for dealing with small problems. In this paper we present a decentralised approach for the PTSP, where the supply chain is featured as a sequence of planning entities. Each of these entities consists of one production facility and is responsible for its production scheduling as well as for the transport routing to the subsequent planning entities. The scheduling is performed on the basis of an optimisation model that takes current capabilities of the inter-facility transportation and the production system into account. The analysis of computational results demonstrates the need for developing heuristics for suitably dealing with this kind of complex problem.