Simultaneous lot sizing and scheduling in the animal feed premix industry

Feed represents a significant contributor to the total costs of animal production. Improved efficiency of animal food production may reduce feed cost and gain a positive impact on supply as well as the demand in animal food production. In this paper a discrete-time MILP-based scheduling model is proposed for optimization of animal food premix production process. The objective of the model is to minimize the total production and manpower costs while maximizing the utilization of parallel equipment units at the same time. The set of constraints captures all operational constraints from a specific production plant. Testing on a real case study proves the superiority of proposed approach in comparison to the current practice and paves the way for its industrial implementation. A framework for industrial application of the proposed model is described. In terms of capabilities, the proposed tailor-made solution represents a superior alternative to the general purpose software currently available on the market.