Utilization of a receding horizon optimization strategy in batch plants short term scheduling problems

A suboptimal technique is presented for short term scheduling problems in batch plants. The situation considered is a multipurpose plant scheduling problem where a set of tasks with predefined batch sizes have to be allocated taking into account due dates established by a planning level. It is proposed a sequential algorithm based on the adaptation of the concepts of output prediction and control horizons from predictive control theory. Control values are operations start times and predicted output becomes an estimation of future bottlenecks.