A Scheduling Problem in Wire Industry

In this book, properties and scheduling constraints of copper-wire production and scheduling problem are analysed. This problem can be decomposed into three main sections. Based on these sections, properties of the problem and the objective function within a mathematical model are defined and scheduling heuristics to cover both the multi-wire and bunching stages are demonstrated. In multi-wire stage, after acquiring an initial solution with simulated annealing technique, a scheduling solution is obtained. This solution is considered as an input for the second stage and jobs in bunching stage are scheduled with another heuristic and final result is revealed out. Final result is compared with the planners results and efficiency of the proposed heuristic method is evaluated. Heuristic algorithms proposed in this book consider the relevant sector specific constraints like tardiness to the due date, sequence dependent setup times, machine eligibility constraints, parallel machines in bunching, spool weight and type. Tests about the heuristic are performed with the real production data of a wire production company. Possible further studies are also mentioned in the conclusion section.