Pharmaceutical companies are undergoing major changes to cope with the new challenges of the modern economy. The globalization of the business, the diversity and complexity of new drugs, the increasing tightness of capital, and the diminishing protection provided by patents are some of the factors driving these changes. All stages of the business value chain are affected:  from the development of new drugs to the management of the manufacturing and marketing networks. This paper describes an optimization-based approach to selecting both a product development and introduction strategy and a capacity planning and investment strategy. The overall problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. This takes account of both the particular features of pharmaceutical active ingredient manufacturing and the global trading structures. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model.

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This paper presents mathematical programming models for the optimal process plant layout based on a continuous dimensional space. Two alternative formulations are proposed which can accommodate rectangular equipment footprints of arbitrary size. Then, one of the formulations is extended to account for a common designer objective:  to organize the layout into well-defined production sections. All models are formulated as mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems which can be solved to global optimality by using commercial optimization software. The applicability of the proposed mathematical models is demonstrated by a number of illustrative examples.

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Plant layout is concerned with the spatial arrangement of processing equipment, storage vessels, and their interconnecting pipework. Deciding a good layout is an important activity in the design of chemical and process plants. A good layout will facilitate a correct operation of the plant. It will also provide an economic acceptable balance between the often conflicting constraints deriving from safety, environment, construction, maintenance, operation, space for future expansion, and process relationships such as those determined by gravity flow. This paper presents a mathematical formulation for addressing the problem of allocating items of equipment in a given two-or three-dimensional space. The objective function to be minimized is the total pumping, connection, and floor construction cost. Detailed cost factors are used to account for the flow direction between two connected units. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model. Specific attention is paid to constructing a formulation which is suitable for the solution of large scale problems. The method presents the rigorous solution of problems with about 30 process equipment and of essentially unlimited size problems when the rigorous optimization is combined with simple heuristic rules. Three case studies are presented to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach to retrofit problems in multipurpose plants. Trade-offs between capital and operating costs are captured so that the optimal number of required floors may be determined.