Minimization of Resource Requirement and Inter-plant Cross Flow Across Resource Allocation Networks

Overall resource requirement can be minimized by integrating many resource allocation networks (RANs). The objective of this work is to develop an algorithmic procedure to optimize the overall resource requirement by integrating multiple RANs and also to minimize the inter-plant cross flow, satisfying the targeted overall minimum resource requirement. The applicability of the proposed methodology is limited to two RANs.