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A soft-decision based two-layered scheduling approach for uncertain steelmaking-continuous casting processAuthor-Name: Hao, Jinghua

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  • Liu, Min
  • Jiang, Shenglong
  • Wu, Cheng

Abstract

Strong uncertainties is a key challenge for the application of scheduling algorithms in real-world production environments, since the optimized schedule at a time often turns to be deteriorated or even infeasible during its execution due to a large majority of unexpected events. This paper studies the uncertain scheduling problem arising from the steelmaking-continuous casting (SCC) process and develops a soft-decision based two-layered approach (SDA) to cope with the challenge. In our approach, traditional scheduling decisions, i.e. the beginning time and assigned machine for each job at each stage, are replaced with soft scheduling decisions in order to provide more flexibility towards unexpected events. Furthermore, all unexpected events are classified into two categories in terms of the impact degree on scheduling: critical events and non-critical events. In the two-layered solution framework, the upper layer is the offline optimization layer for handling critical events, in which a particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed for generating soft scheduling decisions; while the lower layer is the online dispatching layer for handling non-critical events, where a dispatching heuristic is designed to decide in real time which charge and when to process after a machine becomes available, with the guidance of the soft schedule given by the upper layer. Computational experiments on randomly generated SCC scheduling instances and practical production data demonstrate that the proposed soft-decision based approach can obtain significantly better solutions compared to other methods under strongly uncertain SCC production environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Min & Jiang, Shenglong & Wu, Cheng, 2015. "A soft-decision based two-layered scheduling approach for uncertain steelmaking-continuous casting processAuthor-Name: Hao, Jinghua," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(3), pages 966-979.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:244:y:2015:i:3:p:966-979
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.02.026
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tang, Lixin & Wang, Gongshu, 2008. "Decision support system for the batching problems of steelmaking and continuous-casting production," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 976-991, December.
    2. Tang, Lixin & Liu, Guoli, 2007. "A mathematical programming model and solution for scheduling production orders in Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Complex," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(3), pages 1453-1468, November.
    3. Lixin Tang & Gongshu Wang & Zhi-Long Chen, 2014. "Integrated Charge Batching and Casting Width Selection at Baosteel," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 772-787, August.
    4. Tang, Lixin & Liu, Jiyin & Rong, Aiying & Yang, Zihou, 2001. "A review of planning and scheduling systems and methods for integrated steel production," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Mao, Kun & Pan, Quan-ke & Pang, Xinfu & Chai, Tianyou, 2014. "A novel Lagrangian relaxation approach for a hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in the steelmaking-continuous casting process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 236(1), pages 51-60.
    6. Tang, Lixin & Liu, Jiyin & Rong, Aiying & Yang, Zihou, 2000. "A mathematical programming model for scheduling steelmaking-continuous casting production," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 423-435, January.
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