Title: Cast scheduling algorithm for continuous casting using network Voronoi partitioning
Authors: Takashi Tanizaki; Kazuya Yamada; Kurokawa Tetsuaki; Shigemasa Nakagawa
Addresses: Graduate School of Systems Engineering, Kindai University, 1 Umenobe, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-2116, Japan ' UACJ Corporation, 3-1-13 Chitose, Minato-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 455-0011, Japan ' Nippon Steel TEXENG Co., Ltd., 8-8, Shinkawa 1-Chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0033, Japan ' Nippon Steel TEXENG Co., Ltd., 8-8, Shinkawa 1-Chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0033, Japan
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a cast scheduling algorithm for continuous casting in the steel industry. In steel production, cast scheduling is the most important that determines the characteristics of steel materials and has great potential for cost reduction. Casting scheduling requires adherence to strict manufacturing constraints, such as the chemical composition of the molten steel and the casting width transition between adjoined charges within a casting. The components of a cast are called charges. In addition, it is necessary to comply with the delivery due date. We have developed an algorithm to draw up a cast schedule for a day. To do this, a day's worth of charges (roughly 30 charges) must be divided into five or six cast groups, and the order of the charges within the cast must be determined. We model this problem as a p-median problem and propose a novel algorithm consisting of network Voronoi partitioning and permutation generation. Numerical simulation studies using data obtained from a joint research company confirmed the effectiveness and practicability of this algorithm.
Keywords: continuous casting; scheduling; network Voronoi partitioning.
DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2023.136484
International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2023 Vol.20 No.2, pp.87 - 100
Received: 07 Jan 2023
Accepted: 05 Jul 2023
Published online: 02 Feb 2024 *