Abstract

Maximizing productivity in a steel melt shop requires appropriate equipment and facility design and the synchronization of production across units like iron making, steel making, holding furnaces and casting of the molten metal. This requires that blockages and bottlenecks in the production chain be identified and overcome and the logistics in terms of equipment and facilities to move the materials appropriately designed. Removal of blockages and bottlenecks requires a combination of process redesign and investments in facilities and equipment in the production units supported by potential logistics redesign in terms routing and scheduling of equipments like cranes, ladle cars hot metal ladles and steel ladles used in the production shop . This approach addresses the system-wide bottleneck removal problem such that congestions, interferences, delays, stoppages and idle times coupled with process and cycle time variations; do not limit the end-to-end production. This paper presents how we improved the productivity in a meltshop by using an iterative hierarchical decomposition based modelling and simulation approach to help identify the bottlenecks causing capacity loss, and experiment with options to redesign the system by suggesting mechanisms for improvement and additional facilities and logistical resources. The implementation of the system has resulted in a 28% increase in melt-shop throughput and increase and significant increase in profitability by decreasing hot metal diversions to alternative casting facilities.

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