A flexible decision support system for steel hot rolling mill scheduling

A steel hot rolling mill subjects steel slabs to high temperatures and pressures in order to form steel coils. We describe the scheduling problem for a steel hot rolling mill. We detail the operation of a commercial decision support system which provides semi-automatic schedules, comparing its operation with existing, manual planning procedures. This commercial system is currently in use in several steel mills worldwide. The system features a very detailed multiobjective model of the steel hot rolling process. This model is solved using a variety of bespoke local and Tabu search heuristics. We describe both this model and the heuristics used to solve it. The production environment is highly unstable with frequent, unforeseen events interrupting planned production. We describe how the scheduling system's models, algorithms and interfaces have been developed to handle this instability. We consider particularly the impact on existing planning and production systems and the qualitative improvements which result from the system's implementation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.