A hierarchical approach for campaign planning of multipurpose batch plants

Abstract The campaign mode of operation is the dominant form of manufacture in multiproduct and multipurpose plants when reliable demand predictions are available for the various products. Despite the recent emergence of several algorithms for the “optimal” planning of such operations, truly optimal use of the available resources is not always achieved due to a number of restrictive assumptions that these algorithms adopt in order to simplify the mathematical formulation. This paper describes a hierarchical approach that removes various restrictions regarding the intermediate storage policy adopted between successive steps in the manufacture of a product, the utilisation of multiple units in parallel, as well as the use of the same item of equipment for more than one task within the same campaign. The approach often results in significantly improved plant performance, as illustrated by a case study presented.