Proceedings of the IEEE
International Conference on Information and Automation
Ningbo, China, August 2016
The Optimal Dynamic Schedule of Iron-making
Process Based on Effective Heuristic Approach*
Liangliang Sun, Xuebin Liu, Hang Jin
and Dongwei Zhang
Department of Information and Control Engineering
University of Shenyang Jianzhu
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
110004(Tel: +86(24)24690970, email:
swinburnsun@163.com)
Abstract - This paper focuses on the optimal scheduling of iron-
making process which consists of multiple blast furnaces, hot metal
pretreatment stations and tank stations. The task of Iron-making
scheduling is to minimize the total waiting time in every process of
the pots and the total earliness and tardiness time of the pots at tank
station, and to maximize the production capacity of the bottleneck
machines. In this paper, an effective heuristic algorithm based on
the regulation rule of the Iron-making process is proposed. The pots
are distinguished between the pots of hot metal of special type and
the pots of hot metal of normal type by using the regulation operation
rules, the allocation machines in every process for the pots is selected
by using heuristic algorithm and the start time in each process of the
pots of hot metal of special type is figured out by using linear
programming method. Numerical experiments are done to verify the
effectiveness of the strategy by using practical data set collected from
the steelmaking plant in Baosteel which is one of the most advanced
iron and steel enterprises in China. Computational experiments
demonstrate that the models and algorithms developed can make an
optimal Iron-making scheduling in a computationally efficient
manner to improve the steel-making production.
Index Terms – iron-making, heuristic, algorithm, linear
programing, steel-making.
I. INTRODUCTION
Iron-making production process in modern large steelmak
ing plant is constituted by multiple blast furnaces, hot metal pr
etreatment stations and tank stations. The molten iron made fr
om blast furnaces which is loaded by torpedo cars (TPC) is dra
wn by diesel engine to hot metal pretreatment station (TPC tan
k which is loaded by torpedo car in one time). The hot metal p
retreatment station includes many processes, such as former m
ucking loader, desulfurization (dephosphorization), latter muc
king loader and so on. In the first, the slag of the molten iron’s
surface in TPC tank is removed by former mucking loader, ne
xt, it will get down to desolating molten iron by the desulfuriza
tion equipment (the dephosphorization equipment ), after finis
hing it, using latter mucking loader to remove the slag which h
as completed desulfurization (dephosphorization) produced fro
m the molten iron’s surface, then TPC tank is pulled at tank sta
*
The research is financially sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation Committee of China (Subject Numbers: 61503259) and Hanyu Plan of
Shenyang Jianzhu University.
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978-1-5090-4102-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Hui Huang
Key Laboratory of Integrated Automation of Process Industry,
Ministry of Education
University of Northeastern
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
110004(Tel: 86(24)24690970, email: sllszwswf@163.com)
tion by diesel engine, pouring the molten iron into ladle, until t
he molten iron has completed the transport process in the TPC.
The liquid iron scheduling of Iron-steel is under the condit
ion of ensuring liquid iron logistics balance. As shown in figu
re 1. It is based on the blast furnace production plan of ironwo
rks and the steel tapping plan of steelworks by TPC tank rate f
or schedule workpieces. According to the steel tapping plan of
cast rate demand, which include the liquid iron of time, height,
and component and so on. Then, finish TPC tank rate correspo
nd with the advance tank rate (By the steel tapping plan of cast
rate transform). Compiling the plan fix on Iron and steel. And
therefore, using the new plan for base. Making sure the proce
ssing equipment as well as processing start time and stop time,
which include the TPC tank rate in pre-slagging-off, desulfuri
zation (dephosphorization), behind slagging-off, Relading. Fi
nally, come into being a TPC tank rate production schedule (li
quid iron schedule plan). In the process of molten iron produc
tion logistics, because of the volatility of processing time in eq
uipment that TPC tank costs, the secondary iron that TPC tank
received under blast furnace, transportation equipment (locom
otive) not in place in time along with the volatility of transport
ation time, etc. resulting in that some TPC tank can’t start wor
king on time which will cause serious delay, if still carries the
primary scheduling plan out, it will result in the confliction in
working time of adjacent TPC tank in the same equipment, the
refore the primary scheduling plan needs to be adjusted (mean
s rescheduling ). It can be seen that the molten iron scheduling
of puddling-steelmaking intervals are composed by several pro
blems which are the balance of molten iron logistics, the corre
sponding scheduling of iron and steel, static scheduling of TPC
tank molten iron and the rescheduling of molten iron.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2,
we briefly review the related literatures. Section 3 presents th
e characteristics and mathematical formulations for the schedu
ling of the iron-making problems. The proposed the effective h
euristic algorithm is applied to distinguish the puts between th
e pots of hot metal of special type and the pots of hot metal of
normal type, select the allocation machines in every process fo
r the pots and figure out the start time in each process of the po
ts of hot metal of special type. Finally, we draw some conclus
ions in Section 6.
Fig. 1 The hot metal logistics production technology process
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The scheduling of iron-making is a multi-objective, multi-
constraints problem, and has been set as one of the most
important and difficult problems in the industrial
manufacturing operation. Because of the complexity for the
real iron-making scheduling problem, traditional single
scheduling method cannot effectively get a better solution.
Recently research is focus on the combination of multiple
algorithm to solve the real production dynamic flow job shop
scheduling problem.
Literature [1,3] Combine the actual production condition o
f real steel factory, study the production problem of integrated
management about factory, and use hybrid algorithm that com
bine fuzzy expert system and search model, deal with matchin
g problem among batch, this system change worker’s experien
ce, trick to heuristic method rules, by fuzzy expert system crea
te evaluation function, quoting branch definition method and H
ungarian method, it had solved matching, coordinate problem
among production processes. Literature [2] Aimed at steel ma
king and continuous casting production scheduling problem in
direct hot change rolling and cold change rolling environment,
it is based on a cast starting time and work rank model. In thi
s model, it can coordination the matching system between cont
inuous casting and hot-rolling production by controlling cast c
ontrol value on cast starting time tardiness, and a practical algo
rithm based on genetic algorithm and linear programing for sol
ving this model. Literature [4] According to the characteristics
of seamless steel pipe factory, establish a hybrid integer progr
amming model based on seamless steel pipe production by usi
ng improved genetic algorithm to solving this model, this mod
el and algorithm has been proved validity by shanghai Baostee
l seamless steel pipe factory schedule decision support system.
Combining the human-computer interaction, artificial intel
ligence, operations research, developed a scheduling decision s
ystem interaction. Shaw and his team [5] at the university of S
heffield use multi-objective genetic algorithm test batch sched
uling problem, adopt the way of interaction allows people to p
articipate in the optimization process, including change the pri
ority parameter, allow the multi-objective genetic algorithm ab
out the batch size and the task allocation decisions. Northeaste
rn university, Mr. Harry and his team [6] analyzed the characte
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ristics of production management, gives the overall structure o
f the distributed online production scheduling system, and desc
ribes the expert system, the combination of heuristic algorithm
and interactive production scheduling plan integrated establis
hment method northeastern university automation research ce
nter [7,8] for many mutations exist in the process of productio
n scheduling for steelmaking-continuous casting dynamic and
uncertainty of scheduling problem, put forward the man-machi
ne interactive and combining method, more minutes, a body co
mprehensive integrated dynamic schedule scheme, and in the s
teelmaking and continuous casting schedule system concrete a
pplication.
Document Basing on the virtual reality technique to devel
op the production scheduling system of steelmaking and contin
uous casting, using reverse scheduling to realize the rough sch
eduling of tapping plans, forward simulation solving machine
conflict, and adopt visual editing to realize the formation of ste
elmaking and continuous casting scheduling plan. Document
4 Aiming at the problems that the manufacturing technique of
steelmaking and continuous casting is complex, dynamic natur
e exists in the process of production, and it is difficult to mode
l the process of production, the method combing virtual reality
technique with scheduling discipline is adopted to build the pr
oduction scheduling simulation system of steelmaking and con
tinuous casting, including dynamic scheduling based on two-di
mensional graphic editing and the simulation of steelmaking’s
and continuous casting’s work flow based on Flexsim. Researc
h center of automation at NEU Northeastern University.
Aiming at the complex characteristics that the charge plan
problems of steelmaking are multi-objective, multi-constrain, i
nteger programming model is built and multistage heuristic ap
proaches based on the experience and regulations of present pl
an-makers to solve them, and develops the simulation system o
f steelmaking charge plan with this model and algorithm at the
core. Using the actual data in production site to perform simu
lation experiment for system, then the results show that this m
odel and algorithm can work out charge plan rapidly and effici
ently, and this simulation system provides simulation experime
nt platform for the research on the model of charge plan and re
solution algorithm.
III. FORMULATION OF IRON-MAKING SCHEDULING
Before we propose the mathematical formulation of iron-
making scheduling, some known condition are given. First, w
e only consider the main processes which include blast furnac
e, former mucking loader, desolating & decarbonizing, latten
mucking loader and tank station. As for the transportation equ
ipment such as TPC, engine etc, and the transportation time ar
e given. Second, the processing time of TPC tank in each proc
ess are given. Third, the number of TPC tank, the sequence of
TPC tank and the beginning time of TPC tank in each blast fu
rnace are given. The related parameters and the variables for t
he scheduling of iron-making are given. i stands for the sequen
ce number of each blast furnace, i=1,2,3,4. j stands for the seq
uence number of TPC tank. stands for the sequence numbe
r of TPC tank. stands for the j TPC coms for the i blast fur
nace, i=1,2,3,4, j=1,2,3… . G stands for the sequence numbe
r of the process, g=1, 2, 3, 4, 5. stands for the equipment se IV. SOLUTION OF SCHEDULING
quence number of type g. ℎ stands for the total number of eq According to the mathematical description of the static sta
uipment of type g. , ( ) stands for the TPC tank processing t te dispatch problem of the TPC tank molten iron, we can know
, ( )
ime in the equipment . , ( ) stands for the transporta
that when describe the constraint condition “the processing or
tion time between the and . der of the TPC tank”, there will be some difference between th
, ( ) stands for earliest
e special TPC tank molten iron and the normal TPC tank molte
available time of the equipment in the equipment type g.
n iron, that is the constraint equation of the processing order of
, ( ) stands for the machine capacity of the equipment i the special TPC tank can be exactly described, while the const
n the equipment type g. stands for the type of the Molten ir raint equation of the processing order of the normal TPC tank
on composition. stands for the destination number to the h exists many possibilities, and it can be described into some con
ot metal pre-treatment. stands for the tank station number straint equations. Therefore, we need separately dispatch the s
to steelmaking plant. stands for processing routes for . pecial TPC tank molten iron and the normal TPC tank molten i
The decision variable is the ( ) , which stands for the beg ron. Since the precedence of the special TPC tank molten iron
inning time for the on the type g equipment . Another d is higher, so it need use former slag, after slag and other bottle
neck equipment firstly, as a result, we should dispatch it firstly.
ecision variable is ( ) . If = 1, it stands for the
About the dispatch of the special TPC tank molten iron, the
is assigned on the type g equipment , otherwise description of the constraint equation of “the neighbouring TPC
= 0. tank processed by the same equipment can’t appear the work
schedule conflicts” exists many possibilities, it can be describe
Objective Function into constraint equation expressions, so it can’t be solved by
There are three objective functions for the scheduling of ir existing optimization methods. According to the thinking of
Benders about break down [9], we can divide the decision
on-making process. The first objective function is to minimize
variable of the dispatch problem of the special TPC tank molten
the waiting time of the TPC tank among all the procedures. F iron into two parts: Device variables and the start time variables,
or any TPC tank, the waiting time between the adjacent proced they influence each other and are a coupling. The key to solve
ures is equals to, the difficulty lie in that we should distribute the TPC tank
coming from different blast furnace to a concrete processing
equipment in each step, that is to solve the device variables
x k − x k +T − Tr = firstly, then, we can make sure which TPC tank processed in
which equipment, as a result, the constraint equation expression
x k −x k −T − Tr (1) and the number of constraints of “the adjacent TPC tank
processed by the same equipment can’t appear the work
for any TPC tank, the total waiting between all the procedures schedule conflicts” can be given. Thus, to the dispatch of the
is, special TPC tank molten iron, this article put forward the
dispatch method that firstly appoint the handling equipment of
∑ − − − (2) the special TPC tank molten iron in each step, then take the
optimal decision in the processing start time of the processing
thus, we could get the total waiting time of all the TPC tanks, equipment of the special TPC tank molten iron in each step.
=∑ ∈ ∑ − − − Computer experiments using actual production data
(3) The methods presented in Section 4 are implemented using
matlab version 7.0 on a personal computer with an Intel Core 2
Min =∑ ∈ ∑ − − − Duo-2.80 GHz CPU and 4 GB memory. The related data is from
Shanghai Baosteel of China, which has three converters, seven
(4) refining furnaces, three casters and three refining modes. The
company produces 1000 kinds steel grade and includes the
The second objective function is to minimize the tardiness
related equipment: 3converters, 6 refineries, 3continuous
of the TPC tank. For any iron-making plant, while g=5, is casters, 2 mould casting lines. As for the converter, the
in the position of tank station, so, we could get the second obj standard capacity: 300t, and the maximum molten steel capacity:
ective function, 306t, height=11500mm, diameter =8500mm; as for the refining
=∑ ∑ ( )+ − (5) machines, the related data are shown in table I; as for the
∈
continuous casting process, the parameters of the casting
Min = ∑ ∈ ∑ ( )+ − (6) machines are as follows: length: 39.39m, max casting speed:
The third objective function is to maximize the production 1.6m/min (250mm thickness), strip-breakdown size: (220, 250,
capacity of the bottleneck procedure, such as former mucking 300mm) *(1300-2300mm)*(6800-10200mm).
loader and latten mucking loader. As for the charge planning, we get the data as shown in
table 1, and the scale of instances data are shown in table 2

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 Table 1 part data of instances 5 AP1055E5 1450

No. sg weight width width priority flow 6 AP1055E5 1400

7 AP1055E5 1400
1 GR5241E1 24 1250 1150 15 20
8 AP1055E5 1400
2 GR5241E1 22 1250 1150 20 20
9 AP1055E5 1400
3 GR5241E1 24 1250 1150 20 20
10 AN1141E5 1400
4 GR5241E1 24 1250 1150 20 20
11 AP1056E1 1350
5 GR5241E1 20 1250 1150 30 20 3016 3 12 AP1056E1 1350
6 GR5241E1 21 1250 1150 50 10 13 AP1056E1 1350
7 GR5241E1 22 1250 1050 15 20 14 AP1056E1 1350

8 GR5241E1 24 1250 1050 20 32 15 AP1056E1 1300

16 AP1056E1 1300
9 GR5241E1 23 1250 1050 20 30 3016 4
17 AP1056E1 1300
10 GR5241E1 24 1250 1050 30 50
20 AP1056E1 1300
11 GR5241E1 22 1250 1050 30 20
12 GR5241E1 23 1250 1050 50 20 V. CONCLUSION
13 GR5241E1 22 1250 1050 25 20 In this paper, we build a charge planning optimal model
14 GR5241E1 21 1250 1050 20 20
first by considering the following objective and constraints:
minimize the number of charges, minimize the number of high
Table 2 scale of instances data priority of slabs not production, minimize the difference
between the slabs in charge in width and ingredient, the total
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
weight of slabs in a charge not exceeding the volume, and
slab 2997 3960 3695 3512 2167 2112 2438 2472 satisfying the jump range and the time of width. Based on the
SG 55 52 56 49 50 56 51 50 iterated neighbourhood search algorithm and variable
neighbourhood search algorithm, we present a hybrid algorithm
As for the tundish planning, we get the optimal results from as ILSVNS. Then, we consider the lifetime of each tundish, the
the charge planning, the results are shown in table 3. jump range and the times of width, the specifics of the molten
steel using tundish as constraints. minimize the difference
Table 3 experimental result
between the total number of charges and the its goal, minimize
the difference between the total weight of hot material slabs and
Tundish Charges Refining
its goal, minimize the total weight of the slabs each downstream
ILSVND 9 9 49 47 12 23 required and their goals, minimize the number of tundishes,
β=1
ILS 9 9 47 51 22 20 minimize the leftover of each tundish, minimize the difference
ILSVND 9 9 49 49 11 24
between charges in tundishes as objectives, build a multi-
β=0.9 objective tundish planning model. Designing a two layer
ILS 9 9 46 44 21 20 ILSVNS with adjustable weight and the Utilization coefficient
ILSVND 9 9 45 48 13 22 of tundish solves the model. Considering the life time of each
β=0.8
ILS 9 9 49 47 21 18 tundish, the specific of using tundish, the jump range and the
ILSVND 9 9 47 46 16 24
times of width in each tundish, the jump range of width in each
β=0.7 cast as constraints, considering minimizing the number of cast,
ILS 10 10 41 44 23 21
minimizing the difference of width and ingredient between
ILSVND 9 9 40 47 22 20 tundish in each cast as objectives, considering the sequence of
β=0.6
ILS 10 10 52 47 22 21 charges in each tundish, the sequence of tundishes in each cast,
and the width as decision variable, we build cast planning
As for the third stage of cast planning, we could get the model with multi-objective. Base no ACO, we design a two
optimal results as shown in table 4. layers ant colony algorithm. For using the methods mentioned
above, we develop a simulation system, including the modules:
Table 4 cast planning result Base on double ACO
charge planning making and querying the result, tundish
CAST CODE TUN CHA SG WIDTH planning making and result querying, cast planning making and
1 DT0148D1 1450
result querying, system management, data maintenance. The
system has the characteristics of modular, friendly interface,
1 4074 1 2 DT0148D1 1450
good scalability. Using multiple sets of real data, we do the
3 DT0148D1 1450 experiments research for the method. Compared with the
2 3016 2 4 AP1055E5 1450 artificial planning, applying our proposed methods can at

336
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