MULTIPRODUCT CYCLING WITH PACKAGING IN THE PROCESS INDUSTRY

A practical problem often encountered in the polymerization processing industry involves the multi-product cycling problem in combination wi th the storage assignment problem. In this research we assume that pro ducts are stocked as bulk goods in a container park or in smaller indi vidual bags. However, when bulk demand exceeds available bulk stock le vels, then bags are ''cut-in'' and the contents put in containers to s atisfy bulk demand. It appears that this extended multiproduct cycling problem analysis with newly added ''cut-in'' costs and fixed containe r assignments can lead to substantial cost improvements. A number of e xtensions to the solution methodology are shown.