Integrated scheduling model for PVC process

In a large-scale chemical plant, there are scheduling problems in inventory and packing process although production process is stabilized. The profit of the plant is restricted by these problems. In order to improve these problems, integrated scheduling model, which is concerned with whole processes from production to shipment, has been developed in this paper. In this model, decision variables are production sequence, silo allocation, amounts of bulk shipment and packing amounts. In case of a real plant, it is hard to solve by deterministic methods because there are too many decision variables to solve. In this paper, genetic algorithm is presented to solve a PVC process scheduling model within an hour with PCs.