Steel-yard planning support system: Optimizing the steel-yard planning and performance evaluation with simulation

Steel ships are constructed by cutting up plates and afterwards welding them together to produce ship blocks. These blocks are again welded together in the dock or special erection place to produce a ship. Most of the shipbuilding companies have their own steel-yard to manage thousands of steel-plates which need to be supplied in a proper time. In STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, the steel-yard is divided into 148 stock zones which are called pile and four magnetic gantry cranes move the plates into, around and out of the piles when needed in production. The problem is that it is hard to manage the steel-plate piling plan efficiently, because steel supply is not constant and also production schedule of the steel varies and changes frequently. This paper describes the efforts required to schedule the efficient piling plan of the steel-plate and to verify the schedule by simulating the virtual steel-yard model. And integrated planning support system is suggested including plan scheduler and plan evaluation simulator. Finally, the paper is concluded with some recommendations.