Overcoming the Barriers to Batch Process Scheduling

While sophisticated systems for both process control and production planning enjoy a wide industrial acceptance, tools for batch process scheduling represent a serious gap in the fully automated batch plant. Despite over fifteen years of academic research in batch scheduling algorithms and Moore’s law increases in computing power, spreadsheets and calculators remain the state-of-the-art means for scheduling in most batch plants. The potential benefit of closing this technology gap is in the billions of dollars. Factors contributing to the lack of acceptance of scheduling tools include the industry’s perception that advanced scheduling systems are expensive and risky and the shortage of individuals trained to implement or maintain scheduling systems. The vision for an integrated batch scheduling system presented here features an accurate model of the manufacturing process; a constraint-guided heuristic approach to the scheduling problem; and the ability to interact with both the production planning and process control systems. A simple illustrative example is provided.