Optimisation of stocks management and production scheduling by simulation of the continuous casting, rolling and finishing departments : final report

A tailored simulation including the raw materials, steel melting shop, rolling and finishing facilities, considered in a global perspective with its production curves and the input and output functions, which create the production chain for several products (hot, cold, galvanising, tinplate ...), has been developed. Once this simulation was done, several policies have been implemented on it leading to an optimum flexible production with minimised costs. The project deals with the development of a software tool which implements a method to solve problems of the production flows of a modern steel plant. It is based on an intelligent system consisting of schedulers and simulators of the flows of materials. The schedulers are able to formulate the best production plan that optimises different parameters (for example, minimise operating time between various machines, maximise working time of some elements ...), while the material flow simulations are utilised for validation of the plan. The tool is provided with an innovative user interface, based on web technology, thus naturally conceived for the use and distribution of the results on the steel works network. In this manner, the operators on the pulpits of the lines can be updated in real time concerning the variations in the production flows caused, for example, by non-programmed situations. As a final statement for the project, the global situation of the whole steel supply chain has been analysed and some final conclusions to avoid bullwhip effect have been obtained.