An Efficient Lot Grouping Algorithm for Steel Making in Mini Mill

철강 Mini Mill 에서의 효율적인 작업 단위 편성

Steel making in Mini Mill consists of three major processing stages: molten steel making in an electric arc fuenace, slab casting in a continuous caster, and hot rolling in a finishing mill. Each processing stage has its own lot grouping criterion. However, these criteria in three stages are conflicting with each other. Therefore, delveloping on efficient lot grouping algorithm to enhance the overall productivity of the Mini Mill is an extremely difficult task. The algorithm proposed in this paper is divided into three steps hierarchically: change grouping, cast grouping, and roll grouping. An efficient charge grouping heuristic is developed by exploiting the characteristics of the orders, the processing constraints and the requirements for the downstream stages. In order to maximaize the productivity of the continuous casters, each cast must contain as many charges as possible. Based on the constraint satisfaction problem technique, an efficient cast grouping heuristic is developed. Each roll consists of two casts satisfying the constraints for rolling. The roll grouping problem is formulated as a weighted non-bipartite matching problem, and an optimal roll grouping algorithm is developed. The proposed algorithm is programmed with C language and tested on a SUN Workstation with real data obtained from the H steel works. Through the computational experiment, the algorithm is verified to yield quite satisfactory solutions within a few minutes.