Comparison of ant colony optimization with simulated annealing for

ArcelorMittal Gent
Vlak-Koolstofstaal
Comparison of ant colony optimization with simulated annealing
for line scheduling of finishing lines
Master thesis – Academic year 2015 – 2016
Brief description
ArcelorMittal Gent (formerly known as Sidmar) is a steel plant situated in the port of Ghent. It produces flat steel
products, used amongst others in the automotive industry. Starting from raw materials, the production process
consists of a chain of treatments and manipulations, performed by different installations.
Each installation has an inventory available of about 1000
steel coils. Starting from this inventory, a planner has to
prepare a feasible schedule of approximately 200 coils,
which he must select and sequence taking into account the
urgencies of the coils, as well as a set of constraints
determined by the installation. Due to the size of the
problem, mathematical models are needed to find a way
through the cost landscape of the solution space, as quickly
as possible, in search of the optimal solution.
Recently, a new heuristic was implemented for a couple of
installations, which performs both selection and sequencing
of the coils in one step. Previously, it was only possible to
optimize the sequence starting from a manual selection of
material. The new heuristic is based on iterated local search
and simulated annealing, but these techniques pose some
drawbacks. The result very much depends on certain
parameters that need to be determined over and over again,
when a constraint or cost changes.
In this master thesis, you will apply an alternative technique to this selection and sequencing problem, being ant colony
optimization. Ant colony optimization is well described in literature, but has never been tested for such problem.
You will get the opportunity to get hands-on experience in a state-of-the-art steel plant, work together with industry
specialists in optimizing techniques and contribute to technological innovation.
Additional info

Number of students = 1

The master thesis will be conducted at the Systems & Models department, a team of 30+ young engineers, whose
mission consists of optimizing all kinds of production processes and logistic problems by means of mathematical
techniques.

For additional info, contact the thesis supervisor, Ward Bijttebier.
v
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09/347.31.81
ward.bijttebier@arcelormittal.com
www.arcelormittal.com/gent
Correspondentieadres:
ArcelorMittal Gent
John Kennedylaan 51
B - 9042 Gent
T +32 (0)9 347 31 11
F +32 (0)9 347 49 07
www.arcelormittal.com/gent
Zeteladres:
ArcelorMittal Belgium NV
Keizerinlaan 66
B - 1000 Brussel
BTW BE 0400.106.291 - RPR Brussel