Solving an inventory-bound multi-item single-machine scheduling problem at Shell Chemicals Europe b.v.

We apply resource task networks to an integrated production, transportation and sales process within a petrochemical context to minimize sotrage and transportation costs under restricted service levels. We are able to generate feasible schedules with 4.2% lower costs than human generated schedules bu using Gurobi to solve the MIP formulation of the resource task network. However, we are unable to solve large scale problems and scalability remains an issue.