Optimising the global production and distribution operations of an internal aluminium company: A case study

In this paper, the production scheduling and then global distribution operations for a wide variety of aluminium products sourced from International Aluminium Company's (a pseudonym) smelters in the Asia–Pacific region are examined. The operations associated with the production and distribution are then formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model using an intermediate product modelling approach. The opening and closing stocks link each period's model thus producing a final staircase model for the planning period. The production and distribution scheduling operations, traditionally performed manually by skilled staff, were impossible to optimise past a month. To obtain a feasible solution for a multi-period time frame was extremely difficult. The resultant model was then simplified by incorporating a number of management suggested assumptions to form a prototype model for initial testing prior to the implementation of the full model. The prototype model's solutions were evaluated for their practicality, profit enhancement and ability to be implemented. A user-friendly package was developed for the prototype model to allow ease of use and full editing of the model and data.