Novel Genetic Algorithm for Simultaneous Scheduling of Two Distinct Steel Production Lines

It is standard practice in the steel industry to create schedules for different production lines in a sequential fashion. However, by the nature of this greedy-type optimization, the objective goals and constraints associated with subsequent production lines will most likely be satisfied to a lesser extent. Here, we present a novel genetic algorithm (GA) tasked with simultaneously scheduling two distinct production lines, namely the “Compact Strip Production” (CSP) line and the “Continuous Galvanizing” (CG) line. Throughout the paper, it will be demonstrated that our algorithm is superior to standard cascade-like scheduling methods such as forward and backward scheduling.