A generic approach for the graph-based integrated production and intermodal transport scheduling with capacity restrictions

Abstract The performance of global manufacturing supply chains depends on the interaction of production and transport processes. Currently, the scheduling of these processes is done separately without considering mutual requirements, which leads to non- optimal solutions. An integrated scheduling of both processes enables the improvement of supply chain performance. The integrated production and transport scheduling problem (PTSP) is NP-hard, so that heuristic methods are necessary to efficiently solve large problem instances as in the case of global manufacturing supply chains. This paper presents a heuristic scheduling approach which handles the integration of flexible production processes with intermodal transport, incorporating flexible land transport and maritime transport running a given timetable. The method is based on a graph that allows a reformulation of the PTSP as a shortest path problem for each job, which can be solved in polynomial time. The proposed method is applied to a supply chain scenario with a manufacturing facility in Brazil and shipments to customers in Germany. The obtained results show that the approach is suitable for the scheduling of large-scale problems and can be flexibly adapted to different scenarios.