A hybrid tabu search for steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling problem

In this paper, we study the steelmaking-continuous casting (SCC) production scheduling problem. Considering the constraints of the practical technological requirements and the objective of minimizing the total waiting time of jobs, we formulate a mathematical programming model. Due to the complexity of the model, we solve it by a decomposition strategy, i.e. jobs are allocated and sequenced on machines first, and the time table of all jobs is then established. We propose a tabu search algorithm to deal with the allocation and sequencing decisions and use a linear programming model to establish the time table of jobs. For tabu search algorithm, we design three different neighborhood structures, including the insertion neighborhood, the restricted neighborhood whose size is changeable, and a kick strategy based on swap move. We test the proposed algorithm on a set of real problems, and the computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.