Efficient scheduling of consumer goods manufacturing processes in the continuous time domain

A new model for scheduling fast consumer goods manufacturing processes is developed using mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) techniques combined with a continuous representation of time. Key features of the model include sequence-dependent changeovers and flexible intermediate storage requirements typically arising in industrial manufacturing problems. Due to the utilization of a continuous time representation, the formulation is shown to result in reduced model sizes in terms of both variables and constraints. Near-optimal solutions are reported for the case study under investigation.