Machine scheduling in underground mining: an application in the potash industry

Marco Schulze (), Julia Rieck (), Cinna Seifi () and Jürgen Zimmermann ()
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Marco Schulze: Clausthal University of Technology
Julia Rieck: Clausthal University of Technology
Cinna Seifi: Clausthal University of Technology
Jürgen Zimmermann: Clausthal University of Technology

OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, 2016, vol. 38, issue 2, No 5, 365-403

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, a scheduling problem that occurs in potash mining is introduced, where a block excavation sequence has to be found taking into account a limited number of underground machines as well as safety-related restrictions. The aim is to minimize the maximum completion time of excavations, i.e., the makespan. The resulting problem can be transformed into a hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with reentry, unrelated machines, and job-precedences. A mixed-integer linear model is presented and small-scale instances are solved with CPLEX. In order to tackle medium- and large-scale instances heuristically, a basic and an advanced multi-start algorithm are developed, based on a specific priority rule-based construction procedure. In addition, a modified version of the Giffler and Thompson procedure is applied. Computational experiments are conducted on problem instances derived from real-world data in order to evaluate the performances of the proposed solution procedures.

Keywords: Underground mining; Hybrid flow shop; Reentrant flows; Mixed-integer linear program; Priority rule-based procedure; Multi-start (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00291-015-0414-y

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