A Heuristic Approach for the Machine Scheduling Problem in a Hot Rolling Mill

The continuously growing cost pressure, individual production orders as well as decreasing innovation cycles are only a few characteristics of the vital structural change that the production industry has been confronted with during the past years. In order to stand out against the competitors and to gain an advantage in competition, an enterprise has to have the ability to adjust to the dynamic demands of the internal and external environment. A contribution to that is a flexible control system for the material flow. This article presents a heuristic based algorithm for the hot rolling production scheduling problem of a steel manufacturer.