Online Heat Scheduler

The Online Heat Scheduler is a cutting-edge scheduling and optimization tool designed explicitly for meltshops. This innovative tool addresses key challenges faced by steel producers, such as increasing production efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing energy consumption. It empowers operators, quality control managers, energy managers, and production planners to achieve high-quality, high-volume order fulfillment. By dynamically planning production routes according to meltshop constraints and energy availability, the Online Heat Scheduler reduces downtime, transport times, and caster sequence breaks while minimizing downgrade rates. Its reactive scheduling and flexible reassignment of heat orders ensure optimal performance in a constantly changing environment.

The Online Heat Scheduler fulfills the critical demands of steel producers by optimizing production efficiency and reducing operational costs. It ensures high-quality production outcomes by addressing the complexity of calculating precise time schedules for each heat, considering meltshop constraints and bottleneck aggregates. This tool creates optimal plans and reactive scheduling, thereby enhancing accuracy and reliability. It provides a feasible production plan and route for a given period, specifying minimum and maximum treatment times for each production step. By reducing transport times to the turret, which is essential for specific grades, the Online Heat Scheduler significantly enhances operational efficiency.

The tool features dynamic planning capabilities that determine the optimal route through the meltshop based on desired casting sequences and capacity restrictions. Its reactive scheduling responds immediately to events in the meltshop, ensuring continuous casting. The flexible reassignment feature enables the reallocation of heat orders in the event of downgrades. Additionally, scenario analysis provides KPI-driven decision support to select the best scenario while forecasting capabilities project hot metal, energy, and DRI consumption, aiding in strategic planning.

Benefits of the Online Heat Scheduler

• Increases production efficiency by optimizing scheduling and reducing downtimes
• Reduces production costs and energy consumption through efficient planning
• Ensures high-quality, high-volume order fulfillment with minimal caster sequence breaks
• Provides dynamic planning and reactive scheduling for real-time adjustments
• Offers flexible reassignment of heat orders to minimize downgrades
• Supports decision-making with scenario analysis and forecasting capabilities
• Reduces transport times to the turret, enhancing overall meltshop efficiency