Clone-based modelling for optimal production planning in process industries

This paper outlines the structure of a visually interactive graphical modeller for optimum production planning of process type production systems. Introducing a ‘clone-based modelling’ approach, the proposed system allows users to build graphical models of a production system with instances of templates of production units through its interactive visual interface, for a ‘natural’ representation. These ‘clones’ accept user-defined values for their parameters, expose decision variables, and internally hold parameterized and indexed expressions of their constraints and partial objective functions that represent the contribution of the production unit to the mathematical model of the production system. Without any interaction from the user, clones build this hidden optimization model that will be solved internally by a commercial solver to provide optimum results for all of the solver's decision variables. The proposed ‘clone-based modelling’ approach allows the continuous use of optimization models without a mathematical programming background, as changes to the graphical model are automatically reflected in the hidden mathematical model.