Development of a tool for sequencing steel coils at a manufacturing facility

ArcelorMittal Sagunto has a set of lines for continuous or discrete processing of steel coils at its factory. The main lines comprise pickling, tandem, galvanizing and zinc electro-plating. The sequence in which the steel coils enter the lines of assembly is created taking into account a range of physical, quality, security and economic constraints. This is a highly complex process since there are numerous possible combinations. In scientific language, this kind of problem is rated as an NP-hard type.

The main objective of this project is to create a tool that calculates these sequences automatically. This project has been divided in several stages. At the first research stage, a prototype was developed in order to assess possible solutions to the problem. At the subsequent stages the problem was solved for each of the lines at the plant.