Production and logistics planning in the tomato processing industry.: A conceptual scheme and mathematical model

This paper presents a conceptual scheme of the production and logistics planning problem faced by Brazilian tomato processing industry and proposes a linear programming model that appropriately represents and supports decision making in agricultural and industrial activities. Tactical planning decisions in the tomato processing industry are related to the size of tomato areas, choice of tomato varieties to be cultivated, planting and harvest periods, transporting tomatoes from agricultural fields to processing plants, the production of semi-finished products (concentrated tomato pulps) and final products to consumers, as well as managing inventories and transportation of these products to warehouses in the plants. The model has been tested using real data and the solutions for the production and logistics plans compared to the data have demonstrated the model's potential to be used in practice for planning the whole tomato season and industrial key activities, as well as exploring the sensitivity analysis of the problem data. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.