The integrated planning of outgoing coil selection for retrieval, multi-crane scheduling, and location assignment to the incoming and blocking coils in steel coil warehouses

In this paper, the problem of scheduling crane-operated warehouses in a triangle stacking style is investigated. In a steel supply chain, warehouses play a significant role in establishing a connection between the producer and the customers. Therefore, improving their performance results in a competitive advantage in the supply chain. One of the challenges of steel coil warehouses is the selection of outgoing coils out of the candidate coils for retrieval. Despite its importance, this problem has not been investigated in the studies relevant to steel coil warehouses. In this study, in addition to the selection of outgoing coils, sequencing of the operations on the incoming, outgoing, and blocking coils, location assignment to the incoming and blocking coils, and crane scheduling are considered in an integrated manner. First, a mixed integer linear programming model is proposed. Further, a Greedy heuristic algorithm and two metaheuristics are developed to solve large-sized instances of the problem. Metaheuristics include a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) and a hybrid algorithm that combines Ant Colony System with the GRASP (ACS-GRASP). Finally, performances of the proposed algorithms are compared over randomly generated instances as well as instances which are generated based on the real data obtained from Isfahan’s Mobarakeh Steel Company. To conduct this analysis, various performance evaluation metrics are applied. Computational results indicate that ACS-GRASP converges slower than GRASP, but is more reliable and efficient. On the other hand, in large-sized instances, the Greedy algorithm runs extremely fast and can find solutions which are comparable to the metaheuristic solutions. •We studied crane scheduling and location assignment in steel coil warehouses.•We considered selection of coils for retrieval from the candidate outgoing coils.•A novel mixed integer linear programming model was developed for this problem.•An efficient heuristic algorithm and good-performing metaheuristics were developed.•Algorithms applied on random and real world instances obtained from a steel company.