A new functionally partitioned scheduling system has been developed to improve efficiency for cast-to-roll scheduling in steel sheet manufacturing. It is equipped with a two-stage algorithm, namely a, macro-scheduling and a micro-scheduling algorithm, which can solve a multiobjective assigning and sequencing problem in several tens of seconds. To achieve better efficiency of scheduling operation, it was divided into a human component and a computer component. The latter of which was further divided into a workstation component and a host computer component. This functionally partitioned but strategically integrated system, which can create a rather reasonable schedule, has helped operators a great deal and has contributed to drastic reduction of planning time.
