A Connecting Timetable Rescheduling Model for Production and Rail Transportation With Unexpected Disruptions

The purpose of production and rail transportation rescheduling is to coordinate the completion times of products with the departure times of connecting trains to mitigate the negative effects caused by operation unpunctuality. The problem is already complicated due to the time coordination between production and rail transportation. In particular, concomitant production scheduling factors make the problem more complex. Therefore, a rescheduling model that solves unpunctuality is introduced. First, the model aims to minimize the processing time and the train operation time, including running time and dwell time. Second, the model attempts to minimize the difference between the original schedule and the rescheduled one. A genetic algorithm is employed to solve the problem. The results show that once an unpunctual event occurs, the effective management is to adjust the production and rail transportation schedule, which consists of the running time, dwell time, and processing time. Moreover, when the degree of unpunctuality is not particularly large, the proposed model can counteract the negative effects.