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A decision support system for the operational production planning and scheduling of an integrated pulp and paper mill

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 77; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.compchemeng.2015.03.017

1873-4375

Gonçalo Figueira, Pedro Amorim, Luís Guimarães, Mário Amorim‐Lopes, Fábio Neves-Moreira, Bernardo Almada‐Lobo,

Advanced Control Systems Optimization

Production planning and scheduling in the process industry in general and in the pulp and paper (P&P) sector in particular can be very challenging. Most practitioners, however, address those activities relying only on spreadsheets, which is time-consuming and sub-optimal. The literature has reported some decision support systems (DSSs) that are far from the state-of-the-art with regard to optimization models and methods, and several research works that do not address industrial issues. We contribute to reduce that gap by developing and describing a DSS that resulted from several iterations with a P&P company and from a thorough review of the literature on process systems engineering. The DSS incorporates relevant industrial features (which motivated the development of a specific model), exhibits important technical details (such as the connection to existing systems and user-friendly interfaces) and shows how optimization can be integrated in real world applications, enhanced by key pre- and post-optimization procedures.