Differential evolution algorithm for solving coil scheduling problem in parallel continuous annealing lines

This paper studies the coil scheduling problem in parallel continuous annealing lines, which is derived from practical steel production. The problem is to assign the candidate coils to the parallel continuous annealing lines, and make the schedule of the coils in each production line, aiming at reducing the total changeover cost, and improving the production capacity utilization. To solve the problem, a new differential evolution (Sa-PDDE) algorithm is proposed with consideration of the practical production restrictions. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is verified by computational experiments.