| Over the years various techniques have been proposed to speed-up the classical Benders decomposition algorithm (Benders, 1962). The work presented in the literature has mainly focused on either reducing the number of iterations of the algorithm or on restricting the solution space of the decomposed problems. In this article a new strategy for Benders algorithm is proposed and applied to two case studies in order to evaluate its efficiency. This strategy referred to as covering cut bundle (CCB) generation is shown to implement in a novel way the multiple constraints generation idea. The CCB generation is applied to mixed integer problems arising from two types of applications the scheduling of crude oil (Saharidis, 2006) and the scheduling problem for multi-product, multi-purpose batch plants (Ierapetritou and Floudas, 1998). In both cases CCB significantly decreases the number of iterations of the Benders method leading to improved resolution times. |