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ScienceDirect
Procedia Manufacturing
Manufacturing 00
00 (2019)
(2019) 000–000
000–000
Procedia
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 429–433
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
International
International Conference
Conference on
on Industry
Industry 4.0
4.0 and
and Smart
Smart Manufacturing
Manufacturing (ISM
(ISM 2019)
2019)
International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing (ISM 2019)
Performance, Quality, and Control
International
Performance,
Conference on Industry 4.0 and in
Smart Steel Logistics 4.0
Manufacturing (ISM 2019)
Performance, Quality,
Quality, and
and Control
Control in
in Steel
Steel Logistics
Logistics 4.0
4.0
Performance,
Andreas Behama,∗ Quality,
a,∗, Sebastian Raggland
b,c ControlA.inHauder
b,c , Viktoria Steela,d
a,dLogistics
, Johannes 4.0
Kardera,c
a,c ,
Andreas Behama,∗, Sebastian Ragglb,ca , Viktoria A. Hauderb,c a,d , Johannes Kardera,c ,
Andreas Behama,∗, SebastianStefan Ragglb,ca ,, Michael
ViktoriaAffenzeller
A. Hauderb,c a,d , Johannes Kardera,c ,
Andreas Beham , Sebastian Stefan Wagner
Wagner
Raggl a ,, Michael
Viktoria Affenzeller
A. Hauder b,c , Johannes Karder ,
Stefan Wagner a , Michael Affenzeller b,c
Stefan
CenterWagner , Michael
OptimizationAffenzeller
a Josef Ressel Center for
a Josef Ressel for Adaptive
Adaptive Optimization in
in Dynamic
Dynamic Environments,
Environments,
University
a of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 13, 4232 Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
UniversityJosef Ressel Sciences
Center for Adaptive Optimization in Dynamic
13, 4232 Environments,
a of Applied Upper Austria, Softwarepark Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
UniversityJosef Ressel
of Applied Center for
b Heuristic
Sciences
b Heuristic Adaptive
and
Upper
and
Optimization
Evolutionary
Austria, in Dynamic
Algorithms
Softwarepark
Evolutionary 4232 Environments,
Laboratory,
Algorithms 13, Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
Laboratory,
University of Applied Sciences
b Heuristic Upper
and Austria, Softwarepark
Evolutionary 13,
Algorithms 13, 4232 Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
Laboratory,
c Institute
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 4232
b Heuristic and Evolutionary Algorithms Laboratory,Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
c Institute for Formal Models
University and
of Verification,
Applied SciencesJohannes
Upper Kepler
Austria, Universität
Softwarepark Linz,
13, Altenberger
4232 Straße
Hagenberg,
for Formal Models and Verification, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger 69,
69, 4040
4040 Linz,
AUSTRIA
Straße Linz, AUSTRIA
AUSTRIA
d c
d Institute of University
Production and of Applied SciencesJohannes
Upper Austria, Softwarepark 13, 4232 Hagenberg, AUSTRIA
Institute
Institute of
c Institute
for Formal
Production and Logistics
Models and
Logistics Management,
Verification,
Management, Johannes
Johannes Kepler
Kepler
Kepler Universität
Universität
Universität Linz,
Linz, Altenberger
Altenberger
Linz, Straße
Straße
Altenberger 69,69,
Straße 4040
4040
69, Linz,
Linz,
4040 AUSTRIA
AUSTRIA
Linz, AUSTRIA
d Institute of for Formal Models and Verification, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz,
Production and Logistics Management, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, AUSTRIA
AUSTRIA
d Institute of Production and Logistics Management, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, AUSTRIA

Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
In
In the
the steel
Abstractsteel industry,
industry, logistics
logistics is
is very
very often
often part
part of
of the
the value
value chain
chain since
since storage
storage processes
processes and
and therefore
therefore cooling
cooling processes
processes contribute
contribute
to
to the
In the product quality
steel industry,
product to
to a
a very
qualitylogistics
veryis larger
very often
larger degree.
partAs
degree. Asofa result,
athe value
result, steel logistics
chain
steel is
is concerned
since storage
logistics with
processes
concerned the
the storage
with and therefore
storage and
and movement
cooling of
of –
processes
movement – in our
our case
contribute
in case
In
–
to the
work
the steel
in
product industry,
process
quality logistics
(WIP) to a veryis very
materials.
larger often part
Thousands
degree. Asof
of
a the
tons value
result, of chain
steel
steel aresince storage
transported
logistics is processes
with
concerned and
cranes
with the therefore
and cooling
heavy-duty
storage and processes
vehicles
movement ofand
– contribute
instored in
our case
– work in process (WIP) materials. Thousands of tons of steel are transported with cranes and heavy-duty vehicles and stored in
to the product
stacks atinlarge quality
yards to a very
every day. larger degree. Asofa tons
result, of steel logistics is concerned
withwith thestrongly
storage and movement ofand
–operations.
instored
our case
– work
stacks at process
large (WIP)
yards day. The
everymaterials.The whole
whole industry
Thousands
industry is
is under
under pressure
steel to
to reduce
reduce costs,
are transported
pressure costs, which
cranes
which and influences
heavy-duty
strongly influences logistics
vehicles
logistics operations.in
– work
The
stacks atin process
efficiency
large of (WIP)
transport
yards every materials.
and
day. The Thousands
storage
whole processesof
industry tons
is
is a of steel
crucial
under are transported
success
pressure to factor
reduce andwith
is
costs, cranes and
challenged
which heavy-duty
by
strongly highly vehicles
dynamic
influences and stored
processes
logistics in
and
operations.
The efficiency of transport and storage processes is a crucial success factor and is challenged by highly dynamic processes and
stacks
The at large In
environments.
efficiency yards
of thisevery
transport day.
article we
and The
focus whole
storage on industry
slab is aunder
logistics
processes is with
crucialpressure
respect to logistics
to
success reduceand
factor costs, which
performance
is strongly influences
measurement,
challenged by highly logistics
quality
dynamic operations.
assurance,
processes and
environments. In this article we focus on slab logistics with respect to logistics performance measurement, quality assurance, and
The efficiency
operational
environments. of this
In transport
control in article and
the processesstorage
processes
we focus onprocesses
that directly is a with
follow
slab logistics crucial success
the respect
continuous factor
caster.and
to logistics is challenged
Closely related
performance tobythis,
highly
this,
measurement, dynamic
we concentrate
concentrateprocesses and
on selected
selected
quality assurance, and
operational control in the that directly follow the continuous caster. Closely related to we on
environments.
aspects
operationalof the In this
steel
control in article
production
the we value
focus
processes on directly
that slabespecially
chain, logistics
follow with
the respect
concerning to logistics
the
continuous logistics
caster. performance
part.
CloselyWe measurement,
evaluate
related to the
this, quality assurance,
performance
we concentrate measurement
on and
selected
aspects of the steel production value chain, especially concerning the logistics part. We evaluate the performance measurement
operational
and control
steel in thehow
processes
valuethat directly followconcerning
the continuous caster. Closely related to this, weprescriptive
concentrateanalytics
on selected
and simultaneously
aspects of the
simultaneously show
show how quality
production quality assurance
chain, may
may be
especially
assurance be supported.
supported. the Finally, methods
logistics
Finally, part.from
methods We
from the
the domain
evaluate
domaintheofofperformance analytics are
prescriptive measurement are
aspects
employed
and of to
theautomate
simultaneously steel show
production
or support
how value
qualityhumanchain, especially
resources
assurance may inbe concerning
handling
supported. the
complex logistics
logistics
Finally, part.
methods We evaluate
operations.
from the domaintheofperformance
prescriptive measurement
analytics are
employed to automate or support human resources in handling complex logistics operations.
and simultaneously
employed to automate show or how quality
support humanassurance mayinbehandling
resources supported. Finally,
complex methods
logistics from the domain of prescriptive analytics are
operations.
employed
© to Authors.
automatePublished
or support human resources in handling complex logistics operations.
© 2020
© 2020
2020
The
The Authors. Published
Theopen
Authors. Published by by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V.
Elsevier B.V.
B.V.
This
© is
2020
This is an
The
is an
an open access
Authors.
open access article
Published
access article under
by
article under
underthe the CC
Elsevier
theCC BY-NC-ND
B.V.
CCBY-NC-ND
BY-NC-NDlicense license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This
© 2020 Theopen
Peer-review Authors.
under Published
responsibility by
of Elsevier
the B.V.
scientific committee of the International Conference on
This is an
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under
access article
responsibility
responsibility
under
of the
the
ofofthethe
CC BY-NC-ND
scientific
scientific committee
committee
license
of of
the the International
International Conference
Conference on Industry
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Industry
on Industry
4.0 and
4.0 and4.0
Smart
Smart Manufac-
andManufacturing.
Smart Manufac-
This is an open
turing.
Peer-review underaccess article under
responsibility the CC BY-NC-ND
scientific committee license
of the(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufac-
turing.
Peer-review
turing. under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufac-
Keywords:
Keywords: steel
turing. steel industry;
industry; material
material flow;
flow; performance
performance measurement;
measurement; stacking
stacking
Keywords: steel industry; material flow; performance measurement; stacking
Keywords: steel industry; material flow; performance measurement; stacking
at
at warm-holding
warm-holding facilities
facilities which
which allow
allow a a gentle
gentle cool-down.
cool-down.
1.
1. Introduction
Introduction at warm-holding
Eventually,
Eventually, the facilities
the slabs
slabs havewhich
have be allow
to be
to rolledato
rolled togentle
reachcool-down.
reach their des-
their des-
1. Introduction at warm-holding
Eventually,
tined the in
thickness facilities
slabs
orderhave
to which
to
sell allow
bethem
rolledasa togentle
reach
metal cool-down.
their des-
sheets.
1. Introduction tined thickness
Eventually, in
the quiteorder
slabs to
have sell them as metal sheets.
Steel tined
As thickness
As slabs are in
slabs are order to to
large, sellbethem
heavy rolledas to
duty reach
metal
vehicles their
sheets.
and des-
and huge
Steel slabs
slabs are
are cuboid-shaped
cuboid-shaped semi-finished
semi-finished products
products tined thickness quite
in orderlarge,
to heavy
sell them duty
as vehicles
metal sheets. huge
Steel slabs are cuboid-shaped semi-finished As slabs are quite large, heavy duty vehicles and huge
that
that are often
are slabs
Steel
rolled
often are
rolled or pressed
or pressed into
cuboid-shaped
into their final products
their final
semi-finished
shape
shape in
products in cranes
cranes have to
to move
have are
As one.
slabs move them from
quitethemlarge,from
heavy
one place
oneduty or
or facility
placevehiclesfacility
and
to an-
tohuge
an-
that
a are oftenproduction
subsequent rolled or pressed
step. into are
They their
the final shape
result of in cranes
other haveSuch
to move them
equipment from
is one place
naturally quiteor costly,
facility to an-
both in
a subsequent
that are often production
rolled or step.
pressed They
into are the
their result
final of the
shape the
in other
cranes one.
haveSuch
to equipment
move them is
fromnaturally
one quite
place or costly,
facilityboth
to in
an-
a subsequent
continuous production
casting process, step. They
where a are the result
continuous of
band the
of other one.
procurement
procurement Suchand
andequipment
in
in is
maintenance
maintenance naturally
as
as it
it quite
is
is costly,
often
often in
in both
use
use 24/7.
24/7.in
continuous
a subsequent casting process,
production where
step. They a are
continuous
the resultband
of of
the other one. Such equipment is naturally quite costly, both in
continuous
steel is cut casting
at process,
defined where
intervals [3]. a continuous
Right after band
this of
cast- procurement
Due to the and
delicacy
Due to the delicacy in maintenance
of certain steelas it is
grades, often
the in use 24/7.
transporta-
steel is cut casting
continuous
steel
ing is cut
step,
at defined
atsteel
the defined
slab
intervals
process, where
intervals
is still
[3]. aRight
[3]. Right
very hot
after this
continuous
after
and bandcast-
this to
needs of
cast-
be procurement
Due
tion to the
highly and in of
delicacy
contributesof
certain steelasgrades,
maintenance
certain
to the steel
value itofis the
grades,
the in
often
the
transporta-
use 24/7.
transporta-
final product,
ing
steelstep,
is the
cut at steel slab
defined is still
intervals very
[3]. hot
Rightand
afterneeds
this to be
cast- tion
Due highly
to the contributes
delicacy to thesteel
of certain value of thethe
grades, final product,
transporta-
ing step, the Some
steel slab tion highly contributes to the increases
value of the final product,
cooled
cooled
ing step,
down.
down.
the Some
steel steelis
steel
slab
still very
grades
isgrades
hot and
(=quality
(=quality
still very hot
needsrequire
classes)
classes)
and needs
to be
require
to be
since
since
tion
a
a reduced
reduced
highly
cooling
cooling
contributes
speed
speed
to the increases the
value inofathe
quality
quality
final
of
of the
the
product,
cooled
that thisdown. Some
cooling steel
phase is grades
carried (=quality
out very classes)
slow, require
otherwise since
product.
product.a reduced
Slab
Slab cooling
logistics
logistics speed
thus
thus increases
operates
operates in a the quality
trade-off
trade-off of the
between
between
that this cooling phase isgrades
carried(=quality
out very classes)
slow, otherwise since a reduced cooling speed increases
cooled
that this
the slab down.
slab may Some
cooling
may become steel
phase is
become unusable.carried
unusable. Thus, out very
Thus, the slow, require
otherwise
the responsible
responsible lo- lo- product.
quality
quality Slab
and
and logistics
cost
cost thus
efficiency
efficiency operates
[3]. in a the quality
trade-off of the
between
the
that
the this
slab cooling
may phase
become is carried
unusable. out
Thus, very
the slow, otherwise
responsible lo- product.
quality
In the Slab
and logistics
cost
light thus[3].
efficiency
of Industry operates
[3]. inimplications
a trade-off between
gistics
gistics
the
department
department
slabdepartment
may become
has
has to
to ensure
ensure that
that these
these grades
grades arrive
arrive In the
quality andlight
costof Industry[3].4.0 also implications for lo-
efficiency
4.0 also for lo-
gistics hasunusable.
to ensureThus, the responsible
that these grades arrive lo- In
gistics
gistics the
are
are light of
observed
observed Industry 4.0 also
(“Logistics
(“Logistics 4.0”)
4.0”) implications
[1].
[1]. In
In this
thisfor lo-
light,
light,
gistics department
∗ Corresponding has Tel.:
author. to ensure that these fax:
+43-50804-27133; grades arrive
+43-50804- In the
gistics
processes light
areneed of become
observed
need to Industry 4.0 transparent,
(“Logistics
more also
4.0”)implications thisfor
[1]. Intheir
their lo-
light,
status
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43-50804-27133; fax: +43-50804- processes to become more transparent, status
27199.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43-50804-27133; fax: +43-50804-
27199. gistics
processes
should are
be observed
need to
available (“Logistics
become
in more
real-time 4.0”)intelligent
[1]. Intheir
transparent,
and this light,
status
planning
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43-50804-27133; fax: +43-50804-
E-mail should be need
available in real-time and intelligent planning
27199. address: andreas.beham@fh-ooe.at
E-mail address: andreas.beham@fh-ooe.at (Andreas
(Andreas Beham).
Beham). processes
should
and control to become
be available
should be more
inapplied.
real-timeIn transparent,
andcontext,
this intelligent their
we status
planning
focus this
27199.
E-mail address: andreas.beham@fh-ooe.at (Andreas Beham). and control
should be should
available be inapplied.
real-timeIn this
and context,
intelligentwe focus this
planning
E-mail ©
2351-9789 address:
2020 Theandreas.beham@fh-ooe.at
Authors. Published by (AndreasB.V.
Elsevier Beham). and
work control
work on on the should be
the introduction applied.
introduction of of a In this context,
a performance we
performance measurement focus
measurement this
2351-9789
2351-9789 ©
© 2020
2020The
TheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by B.V.
Elsevier B.V. and
work control
on theshould be
introductionapplied.
of aIn this context,
performance we focus
measurement this
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(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) measurement
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Smart
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430 Andreas Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 429–433
A. Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 2

system (PMS) and according key performance indicators dropped off at stack B. We would observe such a move-
(KPIs) to increase process transparency and provide feed- ment in form of three rows, each having, in addition to the
back from real-time data. This way, improvements to re- above mentioned data, a timestamp and a unique sequence
source planning can be monitored. In addition, it is shown identifier. Most of the entries are created automatically by
how quality assurance can be supported with the same the clients of the vehicles and cranes. Furthermore, prop-
positional tracking data. Such a combination of use cases erties such as the temperature of the slab at the time the
within one interactive tool has not been introduced before. change is recorded, may also be stored in the same row.
For instance, if the required slab quality is not met, one can Thus, it is also possible to track cooling schedules, though
find out at which logistics node a quality loss occured (e.g. only at times when a manipulation is performed. We pro-
a wrong cooling process). Finally, a model-based planning vide a schematic picture of such movements in Table 1.
approach is presented. In order to solve challenging prob-
lems in steel slab stacking, operations are automated and
Table 1. Schematic display of recorded material flow.
supported by optimization methods in a hot storage area.
Seq Date Slab Stack Pos. Temp.
2. Performance Measurement
203 01.Oct 06:34 100 VEH A 1 179°C
Performance measurement systems provide a substan- 204 01.Oct 06:38 300 VEH B 1 255°C
tial support for making day to day operational decisions, 205 01.Oct 06:43 100 F / Stack 6 7 175°C
but also allow evaluating tactical and strategic decisions 206 01.Oct 06:47 300 B / Handof 5 1 254°C
on a longer time frame. With the help of key performance 207 01.Oct 06:48 200 VEH A 1 21°C
indicators, better and worse days can be compared with re- 208 01.Oct 06:52 200 F / Stack 7 5 21°C
spect to the observed performance and the resulting costs 209 01.Oct 06:53 500 VEH A 1 20°C
may be quantified. Causes for a weak performance or rising 210 01.Oct 06:54 500 X / Stack 1 1 20°C
costs may be explored in a more goal-directed way and or- 211 01.Oct 06:54 400 VEH B 1 300°C
ganizational changes can be directed to lead to an overall 212 01.Oct 06:55 200 VEH A 1 21°C
improvement [5, 6]. 213 01.Oct 06:56 200 F / Stack 5 4 21°C
In addition, it may be possible to compare the work of 214 01.Oct 06:59 400 C / Handof 2 2 299°C
different shifts where largely independent teams perform
the same tasks. Inter-shift coordination and education may
lead to a more robust optimization and to streamlined pro- To reconstruct all movements it is necessary to first in-
cesses. The results of any changes may be validated by the quire all source places of materials. If we select the material
large array of KPIs which are tracked and reported [5, 6]. flows starting from a certain date, it is likely that we see a
However, the use of PMS is not free of disadvantages as vehicle picking up the slab, but not when it was put in its
we have also observed in practice. While KPIs show the place – that may happen much earlier. For instance, we do
quantitative facts, they do not replace knowledge about not know from which place V EH A picked up slab 100 if
the processes themselves. They rather quantify the effects we do not know about the stack that it was placed upon
and sometimes the cause, but the interrelationships often in Table 1. Thus, the data is grouped and the last posi-
remain hidden. To focus only on the quantitative aspect tion ahead of the selected time range is also included in the
will lead to effects where people try to “game the system” snapshot. This is then shown in Table 2. Parsing each slab,
and find undesirable ways to achieve good performance on given its sequence in the data, we now can reconstruct the
paper. To demand an improvement in one or two KPIs may history and thus the material flow. We translate that flow
have unknown side effects. In the following, a PMS in the into objects that record the source stack, the transporting
steel industry is described, starting from data processing vehicle, the destination stack, the start, and the end date.
to analysis and integration in the processes. Furthermore, we also store additional properties such as
the temperature at that manipulation.
2.1. Data Collection and Processing In the example given in Table 2 it can be seen that slab
300 was transported from field A to field B with vehicle
We choose the existing material flow data as the ba- V EH B. As we know from Table 1, there was no addi-
sis of our PMS. Each slab is uniquely represented in the tional transport between 6:47 and 6:54 of V EH B and
manufacturing execution system (MES) employed and its thus the obvious next travel of V EH B was from field B
position is rigorously updated. A separate table contains to field D which constitutes a dead-head. Movements that
the position of slabs together with a timestamp when that are close in time and originate from the same source stack
position was acquired. The position is uniquely identifiable and with the same vehicle have been transported together.
and refers to a named stack on the premises. Moreover, ve- Thus, every resulting flow object is assigned to an artifi-
hicles are available and serve as a position. Thus, a slab S cially generated lot number, allowing the identification of
may be put in stack A, then picked up by vehicle V and every single transport.
2
 Andreas Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 429–433
A. Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
Table 2. Extended and grouped history for each slab.
Seq Date Stack Pos. Temp.
Sequence for slab = 300
185 01.Oct 05:20 A / Handof 2 1 287°C
204 01.Oct 06:38 VEH B 1 255°C
206 01.Oct 06:47 B / Handof 5 1 254°C
Sequence for slab = 400
032 29.Sep 22:48 D / Stack 403 9 700°C
211 01.Oct 06:54 VEH B 1 300°C
214 01.Oct 06:59 C / Handof 2 2 299°C
2.2. Performance Measures
We recognize that there is a number of different flows
which are of interest to the KPIs. The material flows can
be distinguished into four different types: (1) Movements,
(2) Relocation, (3) Restacking, and (4) Dead-heads. More
specifically, the movements denote the transports from and
to the production-relevant facilities and are thus most di-
rectly necessary. The relocations are the transports be-
tween the different yards that are not directly necessary,
but which may be used to prepare a certain rolling pro-
gram. In contrast, the restackings are the transports within
a given storage yard and are regarded as rather wasteful.
Nevertheless, they are necessary, when a slab in a lower
position of a stack needs to be dug out by moving the
above slabs to different stacks. Finally, dead-heads are the
transports where vehicles travel without any slabs.
Restackings and dead-heads are generally sought to be
minimized. For instance, dead-heads may be mitigated by
optimizing the sequence of transports. Restackings may
be minimized by optimizing the restacking sequence for
a given slab that needs to be recovered. This requires a
model-based prescriptive analytics approach.
We record these movements in terms of their duration
as the sum or as the average over many periods (e.g. some
shifts). All of the above movements considered “produc-
tive time” since it has to be assumed that the transports
are actually necessary. The “nonproductive time” includes
operations such as refueling or maintenance during which
no material movements are performed. The optimization
potential is the part of “productive time” that is spent on
avoidable dead-heads or restackings.
Further performance measures such as the utilization,
the number of vehicles used, the total number of trans-
ported slabs and the incurred costs paint a picture of the
overall performance of the logistic process. In total the fol-
lowing KPIs have been chosen to be relevant. Some of these
KPIs are broken down hierarchically, such as productive
time, but also transportation time. In addition, we state
the physical unit of the quantity that is measured.
3
431
3
1. Productive time [h]
(a) Transportation time [h]
i. Movement time [h]
ii. Relocation time [h]
iii. Restacking time [h]
iv. Dead-head time [h]
(b) Unknown time [h]
(c) Refueling time [h]
2. Non-productive time [h]
(a) Pause time [h]
(b) Inspection time [h]
3. Utilization [%]
4. Vehicle usage [%]
5. Transported tonnes [to]
6. Travelled distance [km]
7. Vehicles employed [qty]
8. Total costs [€]
9. Costs per transported tonne [€]
3. Interactive Quality Assurance
One important aspect of the quality control in slab lo-
gistics is the analysis of the cool down process of every
slab. If a hot slab is stacked on top of a cold slab, this
leads to heat transfer which can have devastating conse-
quences for the steel quality. As a result, the reheating
of certain steel types must be done in a very controlled
environment. If slabs are not handled appropriately after
the casting process, the quality often deteriorates, which
either requires the material to be scraped or to be exten-
sively post-processed.
Not only the temperature but also the storage condi-
tions are an important factor for avoiding e.g. unwanted
deformations. It is mentioned that there are even more fac-
tors that influence steel quality; some of them are not yet
well understood or are even entirely unknown. However, if
something goes wrong, slab logistics is always potentially
at fault since it is responsible for the transportation and
the storage of the slabs. As a result, when quality varia-
tions are observed and its origins are unclear, it is impor-
tant to be able to quickly investigate, identify and remedy
the observed quality problem. We therefore describe a vi-
sualization tool, displayed in Fig. 1, for analyzing all stack
configurations and the temperature progression for a given
slab. With this tool, it is possible to quickly determine if
a quality variation is caused by an inappropriate handling
during the logistics process or if the cause lies somewhere
else.
In Fig. 1, we see the path of a slab across stacks of stor-
age yards and facilities. In the lower image, in a detailed
view, we see the state of a single stack over the whole rel-
evant time frame. It is a detailed stacking configuration as
it evolves while slab 100 is resting on stack A. We note
that the horizontal axis shows the time and not length.
The length of a bar indicates the duration at which a slab
432 Andreas Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 429–433
A. Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
History of Slab 100
Stack F
Stack A
Stack G
Stack E
Time
Fig. 1. Visualization tool for slab stacks as they change over time.
is stored at this location and level of each bar corresponds
to the level of this slab in the stack. Additionally it shows
the temperature progression in terms of temperature at
the time of arrival and departure from the stack. In this
concrete example slab 100 was delivered to stack E as the
bottommost slab in a transport lot with three other slabs.
Shortly afterwards, two additional slabs were put on top.
After all of the four slabs on top of slab 100 were moved
somewhere else, it was the only slab on the stack for a
short period of time. In total, nine additional slabs are
placed on top of slab 100 while it is located at stack A.
4. Process Control through Solving Steel Stacking
Models
After the casting, slabs are temporarily stacked onto
stacks in the so-called hot storage area. Fig. 2 shows a
schematic overview of this area. The number of stacks is
limited, which necessitates a continuous removal of the
slabs. If the available space runs low and the casting pro-
cess must be stopped. Since this leads to very high costs,
it absolutely must be avoided [10]. At the same time, the
stacking is subject to a large number of restrictions, which
makes the process quite challenging. Slabs should gener-
ally be stacked in a way which ensures that the length
and breadth differences are within certain limits to avoid
a bending of the slabs and the instability of the stacks.
Temperature differences must also be limited since rapid
changes in temperature can lead to cracks in the slabs
which can make them entirely unusable. Since slabs are
not transported individually but in small lots, it is im-
portant to ensure that slabs that must be transported to
4
4
the same target are handed over to a transporter together.
The order in which slabs are rolled ultimately decides the
order in which they should be handed over. The crane in
the hotstorage area is only capable of moving one slab at a
time and is therefore only able to move the topmost slab of
each stack. Every additional crane movement takes time,
which is very limited, since the caster must continually be
cleared to avoid halting a continuous production process.
All just described logistics processes are controlled by hu-
man operators. They know from guidelines, trainings and
from their experience, how slabs should be stacked and
how transport lots should be formed. Past attempts at en-
hancing the lot building and stacking with smart decision
support have failed to address the full complexity of the
tasks. Therefore, they were not accepted by the human
operators [10].
Sources Storage stacks Handover
stacks
Pallets
Stack
Empty
Stack
Crane
Fig. 2. Schematic overview of the hot storage area with material
sources, storage and handover stacks and a crane that manipulates
the positions.
The high dynamicity of the process is a major challenge
for the long term planning. Sensor information during the
casting process may take some time to evaluate and a slab
may gain additional production steps several minutes after
it has been produced. Sometimes human input is required
to give an approval after confirming that the material is
within the demanded specifications. In addition, data er-
rors, human errors, and the break-down of machines and
vehicles quickly invalidate a previously optimized solution.
Beham et al. [2] give a comprehensive overview of dynamic
and stochastic effects when solving steel stacking prob-
lems.
Solving the problem requires to identify a policy that
makes decisions and which considers the dynamic state
and future outlook. On the one hand, there are simple
policies that may be parameterized using simulation-based
optimization, policies that are trained using reinforcement
learning [4], or policies that solve a planning problem and
execute the next steps from the near optimal solutions [8].
But often, not only a single decision need to be made at
one time. For instance, when stacking slabs, it is required
to know at which time a slab is to be handed over. This in-
formation itself, is however part of a short to medium term
 Andreas Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 42 (2020) 429–433 433
A. Beham et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 5

flow planning problem. Thus, sometimes multiple policies
are required and their interactions need to be considered.
In the introduced approach [8, 11], stacking and handover
decisions are optimized by two separate models that are
solved in sequence. An automated decision process ensures
that crane orders are generated given the last solution. The
handover decision is governed by an optimization problem
(slab batching) that is similar to a graph coloring problem
(GCP) [9], while the slab stacking decision is obtained from
an extended block relocation problem (BRP) [5,8]. Both
are introduced in the following.
The slab batching problem is based on graph coloring
problems [7], whereby the slabs form the nodes and the
grouping of such nodes represents a coloring. Edges are
weighted and represent similarities between nodes. In ad-
dition, there is a maximum weight that each lot can be
composed of and there are slabs which must not be part of
the same lot. This problem is discrete and non-linear and
is solved by a memetic algorithm which can provide good
solutions in a few seconds [9]. The slab stacking problem
is similar to the BRP. However, one or more production
stack(s) exists, movement takes some time and multiple
delivery stacks may exist. It must be ensured that the
production stack(s) are served in time as otherwise the
caster would need to be stopped. To solve this problem,
a branch and bound algorithm was developed that uses a
fast heuristic to achieve feasible solutions quickly and opti-
mize for secondary criteria, e.g. crane distance also [8, 12].
This problem is also solved approximately within several
seconds. The two solvers together achieve solutions that al-
low controlling the necessary crane movements in the real
facility and have been evaluated in numerous tests during
production.
[5] Hauder, V.A., Beham, A., Wagner, S., 2016. Integrated per-
formance measurement for optimization networks in smart en-
terprises, in: OTM Confederated International Conferences” On
the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems”, Springer. pp. 26–35.
[6] Neely, A., 2002. Business performance measurement: theory and
practice. Cambridge University Press.
[7] Pardalos, P.M., Mavridou, T., Xue, J., 1998. The graph coloring
problem: A bibliographic survey, in: Handbook of combinatorial
optimization. Springer, pp. 1077–1141.
[8] Raggl, S., Beham, A., Tricoire, F., Affenzeller, M., 2018a. Solv-
ing a real world steel stacking problem. International Journal of
Service and Computing Oriented Manufacturing 3, 94. URL:
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=10012725, doi:10.
1504/IJSCOM.2018.10012725.
[9] Raggl, S., Beham, A., Wagner, S., Affenzeller, M., 2018b.
Analysing a Hybrid Model-Based Evolutionary Algorithm for
a Hard Grouping Problem, in: Moreno-Dı́az, R., Pichler, F.,
Quesada-Arencibia, A. (Eds.), Computer Aided Systems The-
ory – EUROCAST 2017. EUROCAST 2017. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, Springer, Cham. pp. 347–354. doi:10.1007/
978-3-319-74718-7_42.
[10] Raggl, S., Roljic, B., Schneeberger, K., Beham, A., Wagner, S.,
Cihal, R., Lettner, M., Wasner, M., 2017. Stahllogistik 4.0 - Die
Stahlbranche in Bewegung, in: Logistics research yearbook 2017.
2017 ed.. 6, pp. 211–223.
[11] Rei, R., Pedroso, J.P., 2013. Tree search for the stacking problem.
Annals of Operations Research doi:10.1007/s10479-012-1186-2.
[12] Tricoire, F., Scagnetti, J., Beham, A., 2018. New insights on the
block relocation problem. Computers and Operations Research
89, 127–139. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2017.08.010.

Acknowledgements

The financial support by the Austrian Federal Ministry

for Digital and Economic Affairs and the National Founda-
tion for Research, Technology and Development is grate-
fully acknowledged.

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