Modeling and Solution of Crane Scheduling in Slab Yard of Steelmaking Plant

Slab yard is the hub that connects the continuous casting and hot rolling processes, where the crane is an essential device for achieving its function. Aiming to improve the production efficiency of the iron and steel enterprises, a crane scheduling model in slab yard that integrates task scheduling and crane scheduling and avoids real-time solution of the position information of cranes is established in this paper. Meanwhile, an improved genetic algorithm is proposed for solving the model. And then, using the actual data in a steelmaking plant in Suzhou, a comparison of the total makespan of adopting the actual production schedule and the schedule generated by the method proposed in this paper is made, which proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the model. The improved genetic algorithm presented in this paper is also compared with other genetic methods, which illustrates the effectiveness of the improved algorithm. The results show that the model and algorithm proposed in this paper are superior to artificial scheduling and traditional Genetic Algorithm in actual production. So, the model presented in this paper is conducive to the automation and intelligence of iron and steel enterprises. Besides, it is also effective in practical application.