Methodology to Aid in the Design of Unloading Facilities

摘要

A methodology is proposed to aid in the design of unloading configurations for discrete products obtained from a production process that cannot be halted (due to physical constraints or economics) and which has no inprocess storage. Some industries which might employ such a methodology for the design of unloading facilities are: the wood industry for the unloading of graded lumber and plywood, the oil industry for the unloading of different petroleum products which are transported in the same pipeline, the glass industry for the unloading of glass products, the paper industry for the unloading of certain types of paper product and industries which employ the multi-production line process. In order to illustrate the development of such a methodology and demonstrate the resulting solution technique, a specific unloading problem from the glass industry will be used throughout as an example. (ERA citation 11:005628)