An implementation of a decomposition-coordination approach to refinery production scheduling

This paper presents an implementation of a decomposition-coordination approach to petroleum refinery production scheduling. In this approach the scheduling problem is not formulated as a single mathematical programming model to be solved through a computerized system, but it is dealt with as a mathematical programming process, in which a number of small problems are practically solved, and their solutions are combined into an overall schedule Our approach does not pursue an exact optimum, but quite satisfactory schedules have been generated from a practical viewpoint and productivity in the scheduling process has been remarkably raised

An interactive computerized scheduling system has been tailored using a commercial MPS and its Extended Control Language (ECL). The man-hours required for making a final schedule has been reduced to one-third as compared with the previous way