Mixed integer programming model and heuristic algorithm for production planning of continuous casting and hot rolling

In steel industry, production planning of continuous casting and hot rolling are connected closely with each other. In addition, they are constrained by many key factors such as due date, process routes, and production capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the production planning problems for continuous casting and hot rolling in an integrated way. In this research, we model the integrated production planning problem for continuous casting and hot rolling by mixed integer programming with the objective of minimizing the setup time and maximizing the utilization of devices, based on which a heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the problem. Numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed algorithm based on the data acquired from a steel plant in Jiangsu Province, China, and the results show that the proposed algorithm works quite well in integrated production planning of continuous casting and hot rolling.