A modern local search method for operations scheduling of dehydration plants

摘要

Drying operations constitute an important field of food engineering, which is still governed by empiricism. The utilisation of different raw materials to be processed sequentially so that demand constraints are met, broadly characterise dehydration plants as multi-product. Processing of raw materials is implemented through a series of pre-processing operations that together with drying constitute the production procedure of a pre-specified campaign. The basic component of the manufacturing system that a typical dehydration plant involves, is scheduling of operations so that demand is fulfilled within a pre-described time horizon imposed by production planning.