Agent based scheduling of steel making processes

Steel making process is the key process where the product quality of finished steel is mainly determined. The process consists of LD converter, secondary refinery and continuous caster. From the refinement of steel by LD converter to the solidification by continuous caster, a large amount of molten steel with high temperature is processed. A lot of steel lots are processed and transported in steel pots to cope with the product demands. It is very important to control temperature of the molten steel at a certain level during transportation assuring safety operation in steel caster. The problem is to determine production schedule of the steel making considering temperature drop during transportation. The scheduling method using agent model based on the ant algorithm is applied to the transportation and the production planning for steel making process in steel works. Scheduling combining the ant algorithm and temperature calculation model for temperature constraints in the process is made. The practicability of the proposed scheduling method is checked numerically reflecting actual operations in steel works.