Optimal Planning of Modular Production Networks and Facilities for a Sustainable Process Industry - Development and Analysis of Planning Models for Decision Support

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Tristan Becker; Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Lier
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning ; Operations Management and Computer Science for Business Administration
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538242827

To cope with the climate crisis, global efforts for decarbonization are required as soon as possible. Consequently, industrial goods must be produced from sustainable raw materials using renewable energies. However, renewable raw materials and energies are subject to greater fluctuations and uncertainties compared to fossil resources. The availability of renewable raw materials and energies varies in terms of quantity, time, and location. At the same time, pandemics, wars, and catastrophic weather events cause unpredictable, disruptive events, such as disruptions in supply chains and markets. These lead to fluctuations and uncertainties both on the raw material and market side. Modular production concepts are discussed as a possible solution to these challenges. In response to these challenges, research examines adaptable, modular production and logistics concepts. Modular production concepts enable flexible reactions to changes on the raw material and market side in terms of the dimensions of quantity, time, product, or place. This flexibility is especially relevant in the biobased chemical industries, which operate upstream closer to the raw materials. However, the spatial and temporal distribution of these raw materials, as well as customer demand, are highly variable and uncertain. In this, the development of decentralized production networks and increasingly independent local value creation offers the potential to close material cycles toward a circular economy. To realize the efficiency potential of modular production concepts, planning methods must include the flexibility of modular production concepts in the context of production network and facility layout planning. This requires the development and extension of mathematical optimization models and special solution methods taking into account the requirements of modular production concepts. In particular, an integrated planning of facility locations and routing of deliveries is required as part of planning modular production networks. In order to implement the production network plan, the solution must be detailed for each production location. This necessitates a planning model for designing and operating individual modular production sites based on facility layout problems. To investigate the contribution of modular production concepts to the decarbonization of the chemical industry, a second objective function is modeled, which captures greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, adequate models must anticipate uncertainties in the availability of raw materials as well as uncertain customer demands. The optimization models are validated by applying them to different application examples. The results provide insights into the economic and environmental benefits of modular production concepts, as well as recommendations for managers and policymakers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants