A TWO-STAGE MULTI-SITE AGGREGATE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION PLANNING MODEL FOR A CONTINUOUS CEMENT MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Production planning is an important activity in process companies, since it deals with production resources (work-force and production capacity) dimensioning and inventory management. This paper presents an Aggregate Production and Distribution Planning (APDP) model for cement industry to help managers to evaluate the need and the relevance of integrate production and distribution decisions. The Mixed Integer Linear Programming model proposed considers multiple product families, two-stage production processes, multiple production and distribution sites, a network of multiple demand points and a rolling horizon of twelve month periods. The model aims to determinate semi-finished product and finished product production levels in each site, products transferring levels between production and distribution sites, stock levels in each site and product and flows between shipping points (production and distribution sites) and demand points. The objective function to be minimized consists of the operational total cost, including production, inventory and transportation costs, plus taxes. The developed model can be useful to others commodities supply chain with similar production and distribution processes