Solving Multi-Objective Master Production Scheduling Model of Kalak Refinery System Using Hybrid Evolutionary Imperialist Competitive Algorithm

The improvement of operational planning in the field of oil refinery management is becoming increasingly essential and valid. The influential primary factor, among others, is the ever-changing economic climate. The industry must continually assess the potential impacts of variations in the final product demand, price fluctuations, crude oil compositions and even seek out immediate opportunities within the market. The Master Production Schedule (MPS) is a planned process within the Production Management System that provides a mechanism for active collaboration between the marketing and manufacturing processes. However, the problem of MPS is a predictable non-deterministic, polynomial-time and NP-hard combination optimisation issue. The global search for the best solution to the MPS problem involves determination and funds that many industries are reluctant to provide. Hence, the alternative approach using meta-heuristics could provide desirable and workable answers in a realistic computing period. In this paper, a unique hybrid Multi-Objective Evolutionary Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (MOEICA) is proposed. The algorithm combines the advantages of an Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimise a multi-objective master production schedule (MOMPS). The primary objective is to integrate the ICA with GA operators. The paper will also apply the optimised MOMPS to the Kalak Refinery System (KRS) operations using the proposed algorithm. The application involves determining the available capacity of each production line by estimating the parametric values for all failures. In addition, the gross requirements using demand forecasting and neural networks are defined. The proposed algorithm proved efficient in resolving the issues of the MOMPS model within KRS compared to the NSGAII and MOPSO algorithms. The results reflect that the novel MOEICA algorithm outperformed NSGAII and MOPSO in almost all measurements.