A Metaheuristic Method for the Task Assignment Problem in Continuous-Casting Production

Abstract

The steelmaking and continuous-casting (SCC) process in integrated iron and steel enterprises can be described as two stages: the upstream stage and downstream stage. Raw materials are transformed into molten steel in the upstream stage, while the downstream stage is responsible for transforming molten steel which is released at regular intervals and has a limited time for being turned into slabs. This article focuses on the task assignment problem in the downstream stage within the given information resulting from the upstream stage. This problem is formulated as a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model aimed at minimizing total tardiness within the resource constraints and time windows constraints for the tasks. An improved solution algorithm based on particle swam optimization is developed to efficiently solve the proposed model. Finally, computational experiments are implemented to evaluate the performance of the solution algorithm in terms of solution quality and computational time.