Proactive and reactive scheduling of the steelmaking and continuous casting process through adaptive robust optimization

The schedule of a steelmaking and continuous casting (SCC) process defines the unit assignments of casts and ladles, and the processing sequence and timing in each unit. These decisions have to meet strict production requirements such as limited storage duration and continuous operation under various disruptions. Uncertain processing time is a common factor that may invalidate the initial schedule. Traditional deterministic reactive scheduling implements corrective measures for every disruption event by either repairing the deterministic schedule or rescheduling from scratch. In this work, we present a novel adaptive robust optimization method for SCC scheduling under uncertainty. Compared to the deterministic scheduling method, adaptive robust proactive scheduling generates an initial schedule immune to most major disruptions eliminating the need for most changes. Adaptive robust hybrid scheduling presents an attractive trade-off between solution conservatism and excessive scheduling modifications.