A hybrid approach for the integrated scheduling of steel plants

Abstract

The integrated scheduling for the continuous casting (CC) and hot rolling (HR) process remains challenging in the iron and steel production. Taking into account the technological and practical constraints, we establish a mathematical model with the objective of maximizing the number of slabs processed in hot charge rolling (HCR) or direct hot charge rolling (DHCR) mode. Using the decomposition strategy, a hybrid algorithm is proposed based on the combination of the mathematical programming and constraint programming (CP) methods. Computational results demonstrate that the hybrid algorithm is efficient and effective for solving the integrated scheduling problem (ISP) of steel plants. © 2013 ISIJ.