Abstract:
Production planning in fish processing is heavily dependent on the raw material
supply. Because of the uncertainties associated with the quantity of catch and its
composition, planning for production is a difficult task. Until recently the fish
processing plants in Iceland also had to accept the entire loads of fishing fleet vessels
whenever the vessels had opportunity to land their catch. This uncertainty and
randomness in the raw material supply requires frequent decisions on production plans
for product mix, assignment of labour to machines and facilities, and the raw material
inventory to be carried from one period to the next.
This research develops a decision support system (dss) for integrating fishing and
fish processing. The two primary components of dss are a simulation model and a linear
programming model. The simulation model analyzes the trawler operations, including
generating the catch, controlling the length of a fishing trip, and the order in which
trawlers land their catch so as to provide a steady raw material supply. The linear
programming model uses the output from the simulation model to determine labour
requirements, work-in-process inventory levels and amount of products produced so as
to optimize production costs. The research shows that heuristic and deterministic models
can be integrated to form a decision support system that can aid in effective decision
making.
