Improving the productivity of electroplating lines by changing the layout of the tanks

The hoist scheduling problem deals with scheduling the movements of a hoist in electroplating facilities. In the mono-product case, cyclic schedules are searched. Various algorithms have been proposed up to now, they allow one to provide the optimal cyclic schedule of any lines. Therefore, the layout of the tanks is generally considered as a fixed data. In this paper the authors show how the layout of the tanks can influence the productivity of the line. The authors propose an approach that combines the research of the optimal cyclic schedule of the hoist movements and the optimal layout of the stations. The results show that this method allows one to really increase the productivity of the line