Operational planning of the production and the processing of chickens in multi-products slaughter unit

This research studies the production planning of a charcuterie unit that slaughters animal products from poultry, cattle, and sheep farming and processes them into multiple products. The current organization of this unit was carried out in an anarchic manner without prior study or optimization, resulting in significant malfunctions and a high rate of unsatisfied product demands. To reduce this rate, an original contribution was developed based on modeling under realistic constraints, considering the fluctuations in demand over a 1-year planning horizon. An integrated approach was taken, which involved considering several considerations, such as additive production capabilities from overtime or hiring a seasonal team, while respecting the ergonomic aspects of workers in both situations. The obtained results are significantly better than those of the previous organization. This decision-making tool presents a generic model that can be applied to other case studies and has demonstrated its effectiveness in choosing the work mode and determining the optimal quantities of fresh, deep-frozen, and by-product products. The proposed approach has also proven effective in controlling energy consumption at the storage tunnels and providing careful control at the beginning and end of each period. In the end, the developed model was validated with the Cplex solver in a multi-product, multi-period environment, considering several obstacles that translated into constraints. From the modeling point of view, this study can be a valuable resource for the development and extension of other similar cases.