Jag sequencing in rough mill operations

Raw material cost is one of the major contributors to the overall cost in rough mill operations. The challenge is to choose raw materials that can fulfil a given order in a reasonable time. However, the objective of minimizing raw material cost conflicts with the objective of minimizing the processing time. This study investigates the use of a local search mechanism to find the best jag sequence for a given order. Simulation is used to evaluate the performance of each jag sequence candidate with respect to the objective function. Since the proposed method is intended for real-time production, beam search is utilized. Numerical results for a sample order list show 22% cost reduction.