A Real-Time Optimization Model for Production Planning in Quarry Sites

A quarry site is used to produce gravel with different granularities based on the customer's needs. The production process consists of different stages that need to be planned in order to achieve high productivity and low cost. During the operation of the quarry site, the operating parameters change, and the site productivity could be affected, therefore, a replanning of the production is needed. This paper presents a real-time optimization model for production planning in a quarry site. The optimization model consists of three modules, a productivity monitoring module, a simulation model, and an optimization algorithm. The productivity monitoring module produces the site productivity based on the current operating parameters of the quarry site. Once the site productivity reaches a specific threshold, the optimization algorithm is run on an updated simulation model to find the optimal values of the site parameters. The proposed real-time optimization model is applied to a real quarry site simulated on a high-fidelity simulator. The case study shows that the proposed optimization model can effectively improve the productivity of the quarry site and hence reduces the wastes and improve environmental sustainability.