Sustainable production planning optimization using integer programming

This paper presents how integer linear programming can be used to optimize and develop a sustainable production plan for a medium-sized cold stamping company. The objective is to develop a model to minimize the total production cost, which includes the manufacturing process cost, inventory holding cost, and unproductive machine cost. The model takes into account weekly demands, inventory levels, and idle machine time during a planning horizon of one month. The output is a plan containing all products that have to be manufactured, their weekly optimal quantities, and a prediction of the final inventory level. By minimizing the total production cost, the model ensures that the company is consuming only the necessary amount of resources. The mathematical model is related to the real-world constraints that are part of the company’s production scenario, reflecting both direct and indirect impacts of resource usage. This model enables to simulate three scenarios, and their results indicate that the total production cost is minimum when a company produces in volumes slightly greater than the demand. By better allocating resources, the company can contribute to sustainability in the context of responsible production.
This work has been supported by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI (UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDP/05757/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021).

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