A study of scheduling problem in agro-food manufacturing systems

This paper identifies and characterizes specificities of agro-food production systems. We focus on the features which represent hard constraints that must be met by the scheduling problem. So synchronization with the stock state must be integrated. Next, we suggest a real time scheduling approach based on some preference and priority rules that allow us to take into account the majority of constraints and to consider the unforeseen events that can eventually occur. The two main objectives of the generated scheduling are the minimization of the cost of expired products and the minimization of the time interval between the finishing date and the expedition date in order to handle storage cost and avoid the discount imposed by the distribution sector. Such work is new both in terms of the production systems studied and in terms of the criteria considered. This work will contribute to the knowledge of production and operation management in agro-food systems.