Model and Solution for Steelmaking-Continuous Casting Scheduling Problem Based on Constraint Programming Method

In this paper we present a constraint satisfaction model for the steelmaking-continuous casting scheduling problem solved by constraint programming methods. The problem is described with parallel machines in each processing stage, and the capacity of each machine is limited, and then there are different constraints in the problem, such as process routing constraint, temporal constraint and so on. The model of the problem is demonstrated with real data from practical production data. Based on the constraint programming toolkits, the model is easily established and solved quickly. Use heuristic algorithm to get the optimization solution after finding a feasible solution. The computational results of the problem displayed with a timetable for planned charges in the end of the paper show that the method for this model is feasible.