Patent ID: 7700370

Claim:
A process for optimizing process flows in a facility having storage units for materials with a minimum and maximum fill level, comprising the steps of: supplying different materials sequentially in a predetermined number of batches within a predetermined time period; transporting the batches to the storage units; processing the batches in at least one processing facility to produce primary products; storing the primary products in additional storage units; determining an optimal sequential order for supplying and processing the batches within the predetermined time period by selecting an arbitrary startup sequence for the facility charge; calculating a startup infeasibility for the startup sequence for all storage units; subdividing the time period into N time slices with predetermined minimum time duration; transposing adjacent time slices {n; n+1} for all values n=1 to (N−1); computing the infeasibility only in a transposition time window and only for the storage units in the transposition time window; and retaining for each transposition time window a position for which a resulting total infeasibility over all storage units is minimal.