Computer-Aided Planning and Scheduling System for Steelmaking-Continuous Casting

As steelmaking-continuous casting (SCC) is a multi-step and complicated process with production disturbances, a computer-aided planning and scheduling system for SCC is proposed in this paper. This system with server/client is composed of three modules, i.e. planning and scheduling algorithm, data communication and user interface. With the help of user interface, SCC plant model is established and real-time data from L3 system are read out via data communication. Production plan, which satisfies continuous casting from batch plan and rescheduling triggered by disturbances, are calculated with planning and scheduling module. Production plan is shown in timetable and Gantt form in user interface. Typical Testes on a steelmaking plant shows reliability and applicability to solve disturbances in the plant. And the system performs better than a scheduler in efficiently making production plan and reducing production time and so on.