Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
DOI 10.1007/s00170-010-2880-3
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Simulation and modelling methods in aluminium
rolling industry
Christos Ioannis Papanagnou · George D. Halikias
Received: 18 December 2008 / Accepted: 30 July 2010 / Published online: 29 August 2010
© Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010
Abstract Aluminium coil production plants can be
described as multi-stage processes which are often
characterised by complexity and are expected to ma-
nipulate huge amount of data. Effective scheduling is
a key issue for these processes since it can improve
throughput rates and machine utilisation. This paper
studies the production line of companies which produce
high-quality rolled aluminium lithographic strips. An
efficient representation for such production processes
is provided and subsequently used for an extensive
analysis and performance evaluation through appro-
priate metrics. In particular, the work addresses the
implementation of an overall model in a simulation
environment, capable of integrating the various as-
pects of the specific production management processes.
The model was successfully validated using actual pro-
duction data, and it was found that it is suitable for
the modelling, analysis and performance evaluation of
the complex aluminium coils production process. With
the aid of the model, various scenarios were investi-
gated via extensive simulation runs, such as installing
additional machine centres and reducing pre-set times
the products spend in intermediate storage areas.
Keywords Aluminium industry · Simulation and
modelling · Production management · Manufacturing
processes · Throughput · Machine utilisation
C. I. Papanagnou (B) · G. D. Halikias
Control Engineering Research Centre,
School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences,
City University, EC1V 0HB, London, UK
e-mail: c.papanagnou@ieee.org
G. D. Halikias
e-mail: g.halikias@city.ac.uk
1 Introduction
Production management problems in steel industry
play an essential role in industry, by which managers
can determine the production loading plan, respond
promptly to machine failures and improve productivity
by creating different scenarios and decision making.
Production planning and scheduling, in the production
management framework, become vital for achieving
efficient resource allocation, in meeting end customer
demands and in determining the production loading
plan [1, 2]. Thus, production planning in manufacturing
involves in most cases the synchronisation with the
downstream demand and thereby has a strong impact
in warehouses of both manufacturers and other partici-
pants of supply chains [3]. A more detailed task in man-
ufacturing is production scheduling where managers in
the context of the optimal production planning must
couple individual products with individual productive
resources in the shortest times. Wu et al. [4] suggest that
scheduling can be a cumbersome task especially in cases
when last minute changes are imposed by machine
breakdowns, new high-priority orders arrival and the
occurrence of other disruptions.
This work is motivated by the problems faced
by manufacturing plants which produce high-quality
rolled aluminium lithographic strips (coils) products.
Papanagnou et al. [5] use coloured Petri nets to model
and simulate an aluminium coil production plant.
They argue that decision making in those plants in-
volves the development of a weekly production loading
plan according to a list of products assigned to cus-
tomers by considering workforce level, manufacturing
capacity, priority orders and other factors (e.g. de-
mand management, forecasting techniques etc.). This
994
kind of finished products are implemented in make
(engineer)-to-order (MTO) industrial environments
where customers or suppliers place independent de-
mand information further into the plant [6]. In these
cases, the strip product specifications dictated by cus-
tomers are coordinated with engineering resources and
capacity while a due date of delivery is agreed with
the customer. More specifically, end items are placed
in the master weekly schedule, and production plan-
ning then specifies the necessary production. While the
main production schedule is based on orders in hand,
it is possible under certain conditions (e.g. a known
maintenance plan in machinery that might slow down
the production in the near future or reduced orders) to
develop a schedule of products with high demand [7].
The main objectives of this research is to create a
simulation tool as accurate and flexible as possible for
modelling the production process. Various simulation
tools and techniques have been proposed in litera-
ture [8–10] and [12] including sophisticated models in
dynamic changing environments such as manufacturing
processes and performance optimisation and overall
evaluation of production management. This work is
focused mainly in the most complex part of steel pro-
duction lines where annealing, cold rolling, levelling–
degreasing–stretching operations and temporary stor-
age of limited capacity facilities are integrated with the
aid of a moving crane. Sequencing all these operations
gives rise to numerous problems and complexity, es-
pecially when customer requirements dictate a large
variety of product characteristics [13].
In contradiction to similar works [10, 12] and [11],
the proposed simulation tool outputs include statistical
data of each individual work machine station, mea-
surement of throughput in a given simulation time and
counting of crane movements and temporary storage
capacity area. The full production process can be also
captured through graphical representation of the work-
load of each machine centre and temporary storage
area. In effect, the user can assess the performance of
various scheduling policies and identify bottlenecks and
likely future capacity overloads.
The model was implemented in Matlab [14], but
the code can be ‘translated’, after minor modifications,
to any other high-level programming language, if re-
quired. Matlab is a powerful tool for mathematical
programming, modelling and simulation. Preliminary
trials indicated that Matlab is perfectly adequate for
running the code fast and efficiently for the anticipated
complexity of the final simulations. The software tool
can also provide a friendly user interface through which
the user interacts with the simulation tool without pro-
gramming or recompiling. The software programme is
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
written with the aid of functions which model each
single process/subprocess and other issues that need to
be modelled such as annealing times depending on the
coil type entering the annealing machine.
Due to high complexity in some parts of the produc-
tion plant, we were forced to make certain assumptions
which are clearly described later. The main body of the
tool was written having in mind a generalised model
such that any changes in the parameters of the plant
(e.g. number of annealing machines, cooling-times etc.)
can be made very easily. We have also put an effort to
make the modelling assumptions as realistic as possible.
The main motivation for carrying out modelling
work in this area is the need for formulating and solv-
ing scheduling problems. These are normally used for
the purposes of matching production output to orders,
identifying bottlenecks in the process or evaluating
the effects of capital investment and maintenance pro-
grammes. Note that different types of models can be
used, each appropriate for different purposes, depend-
ing on their level of abstraction. The main challenges of
scheduling optimisation in rolling plants arises due to
the high complexity of the problem and the presence of
mixed numerical, logical and combinatorial constraints,
including linguistic-type constraints which are difficult
to express analytically. The high complexity of the
problem often implies that practical scheduling solu-
tions often rely on heuristics and empirical production-
management practice, while formal optimisation tech-
niques are often restricted only to specific parts of
the process rather than the whole plant (plant-wide
management).
Fang and Tsai [15] propose a genetic algorithm ap-
proach to the solution of the scheduling problem in
steel rolling mills. The optimisation is carried out sub-
ject both to hard and soft constraints. Hard constraints
are associated with dimension order specifications, se-
quencing rules arising due to quality surface require-
ments, smooth transitions in gauge between successive
slabs etc. Soft constraints are mainly associated with
scheduling heuristics, e.g. rules specifying that slabs
should preferably be selected together and continu-
ously from the top of the stack etc. Rules of this type
arising from operator’s experience can offer significant
help in reducing the complexity of the scheduling prob-
lem. Scheduling rules of this type are also used in this
work, especially in relation to the loading of coils in and
out of the high-bay storage area.
Other scheduling optimisation methodologies in-
clude constraint logic programming [16, 17] which com-
bines a constraint-solving and a logic programming
approach and is capable to address mixed logic/
linguistic and numerical objectives and other methods
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 995

based on classical optimisation, such as network-flow

methods [18], queuing theory methods [19], dynamic
and linear programming approaches [20], timed au-
tomata [21], combinatorial and global optimisation
methods etc. Note, however, that all these formal meth-
ods rely on mathematical ‘meta-models’ which are nec-
essarily more abstract compared to the more intuitive
linguistic descriptions of the process.
The structure of this paper is as follows: First, a
description of each stage of the production line is
given, with all the assumptions clearly stated. An ex-
tensive analysis based on this description can increase
efficiency by allowing inventory only when it is needed,
identifying bottlenecks, balancing capacity and gen-
erally coordinating the smooth flow of coils. More-
over, analysing the production line as a whole to find
out where most of the time delays occur allows the
production manager to focus attention on those ‘bot-
tlenecks’ in order to shorten throughput times [22].
Next, the developed simulation system is introduced
together with a description of the software tool and
its main characteristics. Within this context, some im-
portant issues of aluminium coils production line are
examined in terms of modelling and simulation. Finally,
various scenarios are presented addressing key factors.
A quantitative analysis of the software tool is finally
performed, involving some important indicators (e.g. Fig. 1 Production line of aluminium rolling industry
throughput, effect of number of annealing machines,
capacity of high bay, effect of cooling time etc.) in
production process modelling. The model was success- simulations. In the next section, a detailed description
fully validated using actual production data, and it was of each stage is presented together with the correspond-
found that the simulation tool is suitable for modelling, ing parameters values taken by actual plant process
analysis and performance evaluation of the complex which are used in the proposed simulation model.
production process. Results show that production man-
agers can strongly benefit by the proposed model in 2.1 Phase 1: hot-line
understanding the dynamics of the process and in im-
proved decision making. In the first production phase, slabs are delivered to the
manufacturing plant by following a scheduled delivery
date which is based on an annual order plan. Batch of
2 Description of production line for strip products slab units according to customer needs and production
scheduling enter manufacturing plant once or twice a
The production line shown in Fig. 1 can be divided into week. A typical annually scheduling scheme in steel
three main individual work stages (phases) according industry is divided in 52 weeks period time while the
to the nature of the manufacturing process, time and weekly planning commencing in the first working day
layout of the plant’s machinery. The first stage includes of the week. Although usually there are more than 31
slabs’ delivery, scalping, hot-rolling and tandem mill different slab types according to their size characteris-
process (hot-line). The second integrates temporary tics, for simulation purposes we consider 18 different
storage in a column high-bay location, annealing and coil products. Since certain types of slabs result in
cold rolling (litho centre), while the third stage includes certain type of coils, a classification is made before
levelling, stretching and degreasing treatment (BWG), entering in the shop floor.
quality control and final storage. All parameters used A weekly process plan according to the amount and
(capacities, delay times, material properties etc.) are set type of customers’ orders is proposed and forwarded
nominal values which can be easily modified between to the scalping process. Next, the slabs enter into a
996 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

tunnel furnace where they are heated to the necessary high-bay storage location). This period time is called
hot rolling (recrystallisation) temperature. After that, loading rate. In the high-bay distribution warehouse
every single slab having now lower hardness and in- assumed of 440 racks capacity, coils are stored using
creased ductility with the aid of a special crane is placed special automated handling equipment. Apart from
in a reversible mill, and each slab is rolled down to its those coils delivered from the hot-line shop floor, high
hot rolling thickness in several passes. bay stores coils to be annealed and coils to be passed
The last continuing task in shop floor involves the through the cold rolling mill. Due to spacing restriction
tandem mill process which is used to achieve a desired and several other conditions, special computer software
thickness and surface quality. The output thickness is is used to manage all these progressions. This software
set to 2.6 mm. As a result of tandem mill processing, keeps a list of all stored coils and makes a decision of
plates are wound into roll-form (coils) after a series of the next process using a sophisticated communication
flat rolls. Coils are then stored temporarily in the hot- protocol. Thus, the nature of high-bay design requires
line building before being dispatched to litho centre. the manipulation of large amount of data, and it is often
Maximum capacity of storage area is currently 50 coils, an iterative process that forces the production manager
which is one of the parameters under consideration for to go through the different decision-making phases sev-
modelling. eral times before reaching the final decision. For mod-
For modelling purposes, the coils that exit the hot- elling convenience, coils of the same characteristics are
line process are divided into 18 different types accord- grouped together according to order types. However,
ing to the final gauge, width and whether are intended if differentiation must take place, an external decision
for special annealing furnace times which are deter- maker can adjust any priority list. This happens usually
mined by specific individual customers and they are when a priority to a special order must be given since
distributed to the manufacturer when orders are placed special coil treatment requires more time resources.
on site. Table 1 shows the 18 different coil types. The next step for a coil that has been transferred
into the high bay is annealing. Annealing process is
2.2 Phase 2: litho centre used to change coil’s strength, ductility and hardness
by heating them to their recrystallisation temperature.
In the next stage of production, line coils are dispatched An annealed coil is softer and more homogeneous with
from the hot-line shop floor to a column location (high relieved internal stress allowing production managers
bay) which is located at the litho centre, and it is used to proceed them thereafter to cold rolling process. Coils
as an automated intermediate storage system with hor- are batched annealed in groups of four and in some
izontal and vertical space. It is assumed that only one cases in groups of three following the grouping decision
coil at specified period time can enter the litho centre made by the computer. Grouping is made according to
(which is subject to crane availability and free space in width. There are three different ranges for coils’ width.
These are (a) slabs that have range less than 1,150 mm,
(b) those with width between 1,150 and 1,380 mm and
Table 1 The 18 different coil types
(c) slabs with a range greater than 1,380 mm. Annealing
Coil type Width Gauge Special product time also varies according to coils’ width and is 8.5 h for
1 Wide Thick No narrower coils and 10.5 h for wider. These value para-
2 Medium Thick No
meters are set by production managers, and they com-
3 Narrow Thick No
4 Wide Standard No
ply to annealing machine centre settings/specifications.
5 Medium Standard No In some cases of special customer demand, annealing
6 Narrow Standard No cycle can be up to 12 h long. After strip coils achieve
7 Wide Thin No the required mechanical properties during annealing,
8 Medium Thin No they return to high bay and remain there for about
9 Narrow Thin No 72 h. There are three annealing furnaces installed on
10 Wide Thick Yes the plant operating in parallel.
11 Medium Thick Yes
The next process after the coil has been cooled
12 Narrow Thick Yes
13 Wide Standard Yes inside the high bay following annealing is cold rolling.
14 Medium Standard Yes Cold rolling machine centres in contrast to hot rolling
15 Narrow Standard Yes process heat the coils in temperatures lower than re-
16 Wide Thin Yes crystallisation temperature. Coils intended to be led in
17 Medium Thin Yes cold rolling machines are batch in groups of 20 or 40
18 Narrow Thin Yes coils according to their width and final gauge. The cold
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
rolling mill allows the production of plates with low
gauges and special tempers. Cold rolling process apart
for heating process reduces each time the thickness of
the plate by roughly 50%. That means that after the
first pass, the thickness of the plate becomes 1.3 mm,
after the second 0.65 mm, after the third 0.27–0.28 mm
or 0.38 mm according to coil sizes and characteristics
and finally for special customer needs a fourth pass
halves the thickness to 0.140 mm. The time needed for
each rolling depends on the speed of rolls and can vary
from 10 to 30 min. After each cold rolling pass, the
plate is led back to high bay where it remains for 24 h
to cool down to room temperature. After cold rolling
differentiations end and the plate is finally assigned to
a specific customer order.
2.3 Phase 3: BWG process and quality control
The third stage is known as the BWG and quality
control stage. On this stage, coils leave the high-bay
storage area and enter the tension levelling process in
order to achieve the highest flatness and strip surface
quality. The levelling process is divided in three main
stages: side trimming, stretching and degreasing. All
these stages occur in a single process line. After tension
levelling, each coil passes from surface inspection and
quality control to ensure that its thickness gauge and
width is accurate. BWG process times vary from 35 to
70 min according to the final gauge given to coil in cold
rolling process.
Then coils are placed in the storage area (warehouse
depot). Usually in steel industries there is no set point
for inventory level although there are restrictions ac-
cording to the number of racks. In this work, it is
assumed that there are no final storage restrictions
since in MTO production environments, finished prod-
ucts are usually preassigned to customers and they are
dispatched in short time.
3 Modelling issues for the production process
3.1 Introduction to production process modelling
According to Tang and Wang [23], in steel production
environments, processing times on different machines
are not equal, and furthermore, different end products
being processed in the same machine need different
processing times. Tang et al. [24] suggest that the
production layout is similar to asynchronous industrial
processes where there is an unlimited amount of semi-
finished products at the input of the process and an
unlimited amount of spaces at the output.
997
Ni et al. [25] argue that asynchronous manufac-
turing systems are characterised often by complexity
and limitations in terms of modelling and simulation.
Therefore, managers prefer to develop an appropriate
synchronous model that can be used as an approxima-
tion of the behaviour of an asynchronous model. The
synchronous model forces events (beginning and end
of processing, transfer of parts from one buffer to the
next one, breakdowns, maintenance etc.) to occur only
at times that are multiples of the common processing
time step. On the other hand, the transformation of
the asynchronous model into the discrete flow model
is obtained by approximating the continuous flow of
products by a discrete flow. Rosen and Harmonsky [26]
suggest an improved optimisation method by modelling
a simulated annealing process as a discrete parameter
stochastic system.
Another common problem in manufacturing plants
is the sequencing problem occurring whenever there is
a choice as to the order in which a number of tasks
that can be preformed [27]. Sequencing problems in
aluminium production plants have great impact to the
throughput. Thus, the structure of the simulation tool
must encompass hierarchically all the activities that re-
sult to maximum throughput. Sequencing problems are
also associated with parallel jobs and job priorities [28].
The concept of priority is inherent in many manufac-
turing plants. A priority is a numerical attribute of
an activity or operation on which a unique selection
is made so that two competing activities should never
have precisely the same value of priority.
The model developed in this work belongs to the
class of ‘discrete-event’ models. More, specifically, the
model is an interconnection of finite automata, time-
synchronised by means of an external clock. The in-
terconnection structure is mainly serial but contains
also parallel elements (annealing machines) and a
simple feedback structure (circulation of coils to be
annealed/cold-rolled around high-bay storage area).
All modules of the structure model concrete parts
of the process, including temporary storage areas. At
regular time instances and in response to events that
have taken place over the last sampling interval, each
module (a) interrogates its input (typically an array of
data structures corresponding to a list of coils waiting
to be processed, each structure encoded with the ap-
propriate properties, e.g. past processing history, rela-
tion to a specific order and final specifications etc.),
(b) modifies its ‘state’ (corresponding to a similar ar-
ray of data structures corresponding to the coils cur-
rently being processed) and (c) (optionally) produces
an output data structure array, to be processed at the
next sampling instance by the following module in the
998
interconnection sequence. The model can easily deal
with complex qualitative and quantitative transforma-
tions, including time-related coils’ properties (e.g. an-
nealing/cooling time requirements or the number of
cold rolling ‘passes’ needed to meet the specifications
of a particular order). Both deterministic and stochastic
effects can be easily incorporated and highly complex
scheduling rules and constraints can be formulated.
By examining the evolution of the state variables of
the various modules of the overall model, the perfor-
mance of the system to different scheduling rules can
be analysed and different customer-order scenarios can
be easily assessed. The advanced capabilities offered
by Matlab’s data structures and general programming
environment make the model highly versatile and capa-
ble of addressing simultaneously mixed numerical and
linguistic-type constraints. Further, in its present form,
the model can be easily combined with numerous opti-
misation methods (e.g. simulated annealing or genetic
algorithms) to derive optimal production schedules. In
addition, extensive simulations based on the model may
help to estimate appropriate parameter values of alter-
native model types, more suitable for the application
of classical optimisation techniques (e.g. the estima-
tion of appropriate service or arrival rates in queuing-
theoretic models). A mixed modelling and optimisation
technique using Petri nets is reported in [5]. Note that
a trade-off always exist between modelling versatility
requirements and the application of a highly formal
optimisation method.
As stated previously in this paper, we concentrate
our work on the second phase of production plant sys-
tem. As previous description suggests, aluminium pro-
duction system is built up of many processes working in
parallel and can be viewed as a finite set of resources,
i.e. the machining equipment, shared between a set of
products to be manufactured.
3.2 Software tool description
In order to resemble all the activities taking place in
the second phase, we need to associate each single task
with an appropriate function defined in the Matlab
environment. These functions are very similar to states
deemed in finite state machine theory, and they have as
input variables the current state while output variables
represent the updated state. Apart from updating the
state variables, functions must also conform with the
global clock. As it has been stated before, the main
problem arising in simulation methods is how realistic is
the simulation model in relation to the real life produc-
tion attempted to be modelled. Accordingly, to achieve
more realistic applications, we must first reformulate
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
the theoretical model to allow for time as an explicit
variable. In fact, since we assume that the production
system is operating synchronously, the global clock is
updated in each simulation step (defined also as event).
The default simulation step is chosen to be 5 min, which
is sufficiently (two times) faster than the fastest time
constant among all processes.
Semi-finished coil products being processed in the
litho centre have different characteristics and are as-
sociated with specific customer orders. As it stated
before for better modelling convenience, coils have
been categorised in 18 different types according to their
width, final gauge (specified in cold rolling machine)
and if they are targeted at the special orders. There are
three types of width (wide, medium, narrow) and also
three different types of final gauge (thick (0.38 mm),
standard (0.28 mm), thin (0.14 mm)). These data are
stored in Matlab structures as an input file for maxi-
mum flexibility and to improve the readability of the
code. Structures are Matlab arrays with named ‘data
containers’ called fields. Like standard arrays, struc-
tures are inherently array oriented. Element types are
defined using an object oriented design so that new
elements can be added easily and without necessitating
changes in the core analysis code. A typical structure
for the slab (coil) of type 1 is shown below:
slab_type_1=
struct(‘type’,‘type_01’,‘width’,‘wide’,
‘special_flag’,0,‘gauge’,‘thic’,
‘timer’,-1,‘flags’,
[0 0 0 0]);
There are six different fields containing all the infor-
mation needed for the simulation purposes. The field
type specifies the type of the coil (type 1, type 2 etc.),
width the width of the coil (wide, medium or narrow),
special f lag is an integer (0 or 1) which determines if the
coil is intended for special treatment according to cus-
tomer orders (special f lag = 1) or not (special f lag =
0), gauge the final gauge of the coil (thick, standard
or thin), timer holds the time of last entry of coil in
high-bay (timer = −1 if coil is outside high bay) and
finally f lags is an 1 × 4 array whose second element
indicates how many times the coil has been annealed
and third element how many times the coil has been
cold rolled. The first and fourth element can be used
for future modelling issues (e.g. inspection, BWG or
processes taking place outside high-bay area). Note that
the strings in fields may contain exactly four characters
and this is due to modelling convenience while Matlab
handles the data stored in structures.
The hierarchical structure of the simulation flow
system is illustrated in Fig. 2. As it can be inferred by
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
Create excel input file with the coil types
Start GUI from MATLAB command window
Modify simulation parameters in GUI
Start simulation by calling the control program
Analysing simulation results
Fig. 2 Hierarchical structure of the simulation flow
Fig. 2, the only interaction between user and tool is the
choice of simulation parameters in GUI.
The need of handling data with the simulation going
on causes the volume of stored data to steadily increase,
which in turn decelerates the simulation process. Thus,
the software tool must be able to handle the data atten-
tively by providing at the same time simulation speed.
To overcome this problem, we have created several
functions. These Matlab functions take as inputs the
variables defined by the user, compute the required
results using user’s input and then pass those result
back to the user. The commands evaluated by these
functions, as well as any intermediate variables created
by those commands are hidden. These functions are
stored as M-files and are very similar to script files
with the only difference that these functions communi-
cate with Matlab workspace only through the variables
passed to them and through the output variables they
create.
Software tool implements also buffers in order
to manipulate more accurately the pre- and post-
conditions of each process in the high bay. Buffer sizing
and allocation is a major concern faced by aluminium
rolling production lines since the distribution of the
coils through the various tasks in high bay is carried
out by the crane. While the crane can perform a certain
amount of movements in a given time, the software tool
must be able to capture all the potential movements
and update the input and output buffers in each sim-
ulation step according to certain criteria (e.g. size of
buffers, priorities and engaged machines).
In this simulation tool, it is assumed that there are
seven buffers outside the high-bay storage area. One
buffer is between the hot-line and the high-bay (In.1);
999
three buffers between high-bay annealing machines
(In.3, Out.2 and Out.3); two buffers between high-bay
and cold rolling machine (In.2 and Out.1) and one
buffer before BWG (Out.4). The buffer allocation in
litho centre is depicted in Fig. 3. The names of buffers in
the top-right legend are referred to the high-bay storage
area and are associated with the function that updates
the state of the high bay. For modelling convenience,
the simulation tool implements also several virtual
buffers which are clearly described in Section 3.3.
3.3 Implementation of software tool
Due to high complexity of the aluminium production
process, more than 7,000 lines of Matlab code have
been written. Additionally, 41 different functions have
been developed to capture all individual tasks in detail.
In order to avoid any wearisomeness in presenting all
the functions used in the software tool, a selective
choice has been made to those functions which are
considered as more useful and illustrate the main idea
of the simulation tool. All these functions are called in
the main program routine run_process.m (to be initi-
ated by the user through a GUI), which executes the
whole process of simulation. In this file, some default
process parameters are defined together with input and
initial conditions, states updating, plotting attributes
and statistics table updating.
In order to avoid having the input excel spread-
sheet files with all the coils enter the plant in the
same directory with the main programme, a separate
directory data is created. This directory saves all the
data history of the input coils created by the user and
can be modified easily at the beginning of the file
run_process.m. Apart from those parameters shown
in the GUI, the user can also change other parame-
ters which are defined in function default_parameters.
Anealling process In. 1 : in_from_buff
In. 2 : in_from_out_cold_roll_buff
In. 3 : in_from_anneal_buff
Out 2 Out 3 In. 3 Out 1 : out_to_in_cold_roll_buff
Out 2 : out_to_buff1_n (first buffer)
Out 3 : out_to_buff1_n (second buffer)
Group of
Out 4 : out_to_in_BWG_buff
: flow of information
4 coils
: flow of coils
In. 2
High-Bay
Hot-line storage Cold Rolling
process
In. 1
area process
Group of 20 coils
Out 1
Out 4 BWG
Fig. 3 Buffer allocation in litho centre
1000
These parameters include the simulation step (in
minutes), the simulation time (in hours), high-bay ca-
pacity, the capacity of all the buffers shown in Fig. 3,
the cooling time after cold rolling and the choice of
presenting or not some useful statistics at the end of the
simulation process.
In case where the user runs the software tool without
initial conditions, all states and buffers are set initially
to zero. Otherwise, the state and buffer conditions con-
tain the coils of the previous simulation process which
were saved at the end of the simulation. The main idea
of the simulation tool as stated before is to manipulate
a list created by those coils entered by the user. This list
of coils after having entered the high-bay storage area
represents the high-bay condition, and it is updated
in each simulation step. This list is similar to a stack
array (new coils insert the stack to the bottom while the
oldest are on the top). This means that every time the
software must choose which coils should leave the high
bay either for annealing or cold rolling treatment or to
BWG, the list is read commencing from the top. All the
finished coils are collected in an output buffer in a list
form which constitutes the output of the manufacturing
system. BWG times are shown in Table 2.
The M-file run_process.m comprises the flow of coils
and all the procedures in litho centre as they have
been described in previous section. The coils enter the
high bay from hot-line with a pre-specified loading
rate via the buffer in_from_buff. The coils which are
intended to enter the high-bay area are subject to crane
availability and to the high-bay current capacity. Next
the software updates the high-bay state and outputs, by
checking the number of coils inside the high-bay stor-
age area at the beginning of the current time interval
and on whether a list of coils for cold rolling has been
identified in an earlier step. The main idea of updating
the high bay is to ‘load out’ first the chosen coils to
output buffers and then to ‘load in’ those coils located
in input buffers and can be entered into the high-bay
area. Hence, the following rule sequence occurs. It is
determined which of the cold-rolled coils have cooled
so they can be moved to out_to_in_BWG_buff, which
coils need to be loaded to annealing machine through
the buffer out_to_buff1_n and also which of the coils
that they have been annealed have cooled so they can
move to out_to_in_cold_roll_buf f. Then, the software
defines which coils can be entered from annealing
Table 2 BWG times in Gauge
minutes for the 18 different
coil types Thick Standard Thin
35 40 70
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
furnaces via buffer in_from_anneal_buff, which coils
have finished cold rolling and are situated in buffer
in_from_out_cold_roll_buff and finally which coils can
be entered from hot-line via the buffer in_from_buff.
Next the computer programme simulates the activity
of BWG. First, it updates the state and output of the
buffer update_in_BWG_buff which is located between
high bay and BWG and then the state and output of
BWG process.
After updating the BWG process, the software up-
dates the state of the buffer which is located between
high bay and annealing machines. In case where one or
more annealing furnaces are empty, the software tool
reads the list of coils in high bay which are intended for
annealing treatment and checks if there are four coils of
the same characteristics and if there are that it creates
a group (quartet of coils). This quartet must have four
coils that have not been annealed, have the same width
and they are intended (or not) for special products. This
information can be easily obtained from the Matlab
structures and more specifically from the field width,
the field special_f lag and the second number of the
array in the field f lag. Then the state of all the annealing
machines is being updated, and those coils that have
completed the annealing process are first placed into
the buffer In.3 and then are led back with the aid of the
crane to the high-bay storage area for cooling. Table 3
shows the annealing times for all the 18 different coil
types.
Finally, the computer programme simulates the
cold rolling process, by updating first the buffer
out_to_in_cold_roll_buff. This buffer loads a coil that
needs to pass cold rolling process. The software tool
creates a list of 20 or 40 grouped coils according to their
width and final gauge. This information is provided by
the fields width and gauge in Matlab structures. Every
time the cold rolling process has been completed, the
coil is loaded to buffer in_from_out_cold_roll_buff and
then is led back to the high-bay storage area for cooling.
There are overall four different groups with different
rolling times in minutes as Table 4 indicates. The first
group consists of 20 coils whose final gauge is thick and
those coils whose final gauge is standard and their width
is wide. The second group can have 40 coils of standard
final gauge and medium or narrow width. The third
group may have 20 coils with final gauge thin and width
Table 3 Annealing times in Width Standard Special
hours for the 18 different coil
products products
types
Wide 10.75 12.75
Medium 9.75 12.25
Narrow 8.75 11.25
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1001

Table 4 Cold rolling times in Width Final gauge

minutes for the 18 coil types
(four groups) Thick Stan Thin
Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 4
Wide 10 15 20 10 15 20 10 15 20 25
Medium 10 15 20 NA 15 20 NA 15 20 25
Narrow 10 15 20 NA 15 20 NA 15 20 25

wide. Finally, the fourth group is made of 20 coils of
thin final gauge and medium or narrow width. Note that
times in cold rolling machine are irrelevant to special
products.
All the above activities can be fulfilled provided that
buffers’ capacity are not exceeded and that there are
sufficient crane movements in each simulation step.
Note that all the assignment decisions are made in the
same order that they would be implemented in the
actual process. The part of the run_process.m file which
calls the most representative functions is depicted in
Table 5.
Next a brief description of each of these functions is
given together with their inputs and outputs.
3.3.1 Matlab functions structure
– Function deliver_process : Defines the coils which
have completed the hot-line process and can be
entered into the high bay by the crane. These
coils initially update the input buffer and await
to be allocated to the high-bay storage area. The
function deliver_process according to the state of
buffer (state_buff ), loading rate of coils in the

Table 5 Part of the file run_process.m

input_from_hotline=deliver_process(run_index_local,no_coils_loaded,...
state_buff,param,input_file);
input_from_hotline =check_empty(input_from_hotline);
no_coils_temp=size(input_from_hotline,1);
no_coils_loaded=no_coils_loaded+no_coils_temp;
state_buff=update_buff(state_buff,input_from_hotline,output_to_highbay);
\%--------------------
‘[state_highbay,out_to_buff1_n,out_to_in_cold_roll_buff,out_to_in_BWG_buff,...
in_from_buff,in_from_anneal_buff,in_from_out_cold_roll_buff,state_out_anneal_buff...
state_out_cold_roll_buff,index_list_coils_cr,real_crane_moves]=...
update_highbay_new(state_highbay,run_index,state_buff1_n,state_in_cold_roll_buff,...
state_in_BWG_buff,state_out_anneal_buff,state_out_cold_roll_buff,index_list_coils_cr,param);
tot_real_crane_moves=sum(real_crane_moves);
\%--------------------
‘[state_in_BWG_buff,output_to_BWG]=update_in_BWG_buff(state_in_BWG_buff,...
out_to_in_BWG_buff,BWG_flag_empty);
‘[state_BWG,time_BWG,out_to_out_buff]=update_bwg(state_BWG,time_BWG,output_to_BWG);
state_out_buff=update_output_buff(state_out_buff,out_to_out_buff);
\%--------------------
‘[state_buff1_n,output_to_anneal]=update_buff1_n(state_buff1_n,out_to_buff1_n,anneal_flag_empty);
‘[state_anneal,index_state_anneal,time_anneal,output_from_anneal]=...
update_anneal1_n(state_anneal,index_state_anneal,time_anneal,output_to_anneal,state_out_anneal_
buff,param);
state_out_anneal_buff=update_out_anneal_buff(state_out_anneal_buff,output_from_anneal,output_to_
highbay);
\%--------------------
‘[state_in_cold_roll_buff,output_to_cold_roll]= ...
update_in_cold_roll_buff(state_in_cold_roll_buff,out_to_in_cold_roll_buff,cold_roll_flag_empty);
‘[state_cold_roll,time_cold_roll,output_from_cold_roll]=...
update_cold_roll(state_cold_roll,time_cold_roll,output_to_cold_roll,state_out_cold_roll_
buff,param);
state_out_cold_roll_buff=update_out_cold_roll_buff(state_out_cold_roll_buff,...
output_from_cold_roll,output_to_highbay);
1002 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

Table 6 Inputs and outputs of function deliver_process

input_from_hotline=deliver_process(run_index_local,no_coils_loaded,state_buff,param,input_file)
Inputs
run_index_local Specifies current run index
no_coils_loaded The number of coils loaded at the beginning of time step
state_buff The number of coils in buffer before entering the high bay
param The structure of parameters
input_file The name of the spreadsheet input file
Outputs
input_from_hotline The coils loaded to the input buffer before high bay

entry of high bay and the capacity of input buffer—
specified in parameters param —checks initially if
the buffer capacity has been reached. If this is not
the case, the function reads the excel input file
input_file and takes the first coil on the list that
is to be entered. Due to scheduling restrictions
of the number of coils dispatched to the high-bay
entry each day, deliver_process checks with the aid
of no_coils_loaded whether the number of coils
loaded in a specific day has reached the predefined
number set by the user in the spreadsheet file.
Table 6 gives a brief description of inputs and
outputs for deliver_process.
– Function update_buf f : This function updates the
state of the buffer which is located between the
hot-line and the high bay in litho centre and can
be called either with input_from_hotline =[] or out-
put_to_highbay =[] or even from both []. The func-
tion update_buff does not define its output, which
is ‘pulled in’ by the high bay. It is the responsibility
of the high bay (through function update_highbay
defined later) to check that requested row-size of
output_to_highbay does not exceed buffer’s state
dimension. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the
hot-line (via function update_buff ) to ensure it
does not load the buffer when the later is at full
capacity. Table 7 summarises the properties of the
function update_buf f.
– Function update_highbay_new updates the high-
bay state and outputs. This is the most complex
function of the software tool since it updates the
state of the high bay according to its complex in-
terrelations with the other processes. The function
operates as follows: Firstly, it checks the number of
coils inside the high-bay storage area at the begin-
ning of each time interval and secondly, whether a
list of coils for cold rolling (initially 20 or 40) has
been identified in an earlier step. Next, it is deter-
mined which of the cold-rolled coils have cooled (so
they can be moved to out_to_in_BWG_buff and
then proceed to BWG) and also which of the coils
that they have been annealed have been also cooled
(so they can move to out_to_in_cold_roll_buff ) and
which coils need to be loaded to annealing machine
through out_to_buff1_n.
Note that till this stage the function specifies the
coil which could potentially be moved to the input
cold rolling buffer and its index. Also, in case when
an empty matched list is identified, new list of
matched coils for cold rolling is created (possibly
empty) indexed with respect to input argument
state_highbay. If there is a non-empty matched list,
then the output list either stays the same (if no coil
is moved to input cold rolling buffer) or its first row
is deleted.
Finally, the function determines whether there are
coils to be moved to/from input and/or output
buffers of the annealing machine. The function
checks capacities of input buffer of high bay. If
at least one quartet of coils can be moved, they
are loaded in the buffer (after clearing their time
stamp) and the state of output buffer of annealing
machine is updated by constructing a new state and
a new list. Else the function performs in/out loading
operations in sequence according of to priorities
list specified by user in GUI (subject to capacity

Table 7 Inputs and outputs state_buff=update_buff(state_buff,input_from_hotline,output_to_highbay)

of function update_buff
Inputs
state_buff List of coils at the beginning of current time step
input_from_hotline Empty matrix when there is no coils from hot-line or list of coils
output_to_highbay or [] Empty matrix (no input requested from high bay) or list of coils
Outputs
state_buff List of coils at the end of current time step
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1003

Table 8 Inputs and outputs of function update_highbay_new

[state_highbay,out_to_buff1_n,out_to_in_cold_roll_buff,out_to_in_BWG_buff,in_from_buff,...
in_from_anneal_buff,in_from_out_cold_roll_buff,state_out_anneal_buff,state_out_cold_roll_buff,
index_list_coils_cr,...real_crane_moves]=...update_highbay_new(state_highbay,run_index,
state_buff1_n,state_in_cold_roll_buff,state_in_BWG_buff,...state_out_anneal_buff,
state_out_cold_roll_buff,index_list_coils_cr,param)
Inputs
state_highbay List of coils being stored in high bay or empty matrix. These coils are listed vertically
run_index Current iteration index (integer)
state_buff1_n List of coils intended for annealing at the beginning of time step
state_in_cold_roll_buff List of coils intended for cold rolling at the beginning of time step
state_in_BWG_buff List of coils intended for BWG at the beginning of time step
state_out_anneal_buff List of coils that have finished annealing and waiting to return into the high bay
at the beginning of time step. Note that this state is updated internally
state_out_cold_roll_buff List of coils that have finished cold rolling and waiting to return into the high bay
at the beginning of time step. Note that this state is updated internally
index_list_coils_cr Index of coils in identified matched list in state_highbay
param The structure of parameters
Outputs
state_highbay List of coils being stored inside high bay at the end of time-interval (listed vertically)
out_to_buff1_n List of matching coil quartets loaded to buff1_n (input side of anneal_n)
out_to_in_cold_roll_buff List of coils loaded to input cold rolling buffer
out_to_in_BWG_buff List of coils loaded to input BWG buffer
in_from_buff List of coils loaded into high bay from the buffer after hot-line
in_from_anneal_buff List of coils loaded from annealing buffer (outside of annealing machine)
in_from_out_cold_roll_buff List of coils loaded to high bay from cold rolling output buffer
state_out_anneal_buff List of coils that have finished annealing and waiting to return into the high bay
at the end of time step. Note that this state is updated internally
state_out_cold_roll_buff List of coils that have finished cold rolling and waiting to return into the high bay
at the end of time step. Note that this state is updated internally
index_list_coils_cr Index of coils in identified matched list in state_highbay
real_crane_moves Real number of crane movements

constraints), until all permissible crane movements
have been exhausted or all tasks have been per-
formed. The syntax of update_highbay_new func-
tion together with its inputs and outputs is given in
Table 8.
– Function update_in_BWG_buff updates the state
and output of the buffer which is located between
high bay and BWG. This function checks first if
there is any coil currently processed to BWG. If
there is no such coil, then function checks whether
any coil is currently waiting to be loaded to BWG
(coils that have finished cold rolling process and
they have waited enough for cooling purposes). In
case that many coils are found in high bay that can
be transferred to BWG, the function selects the coil
which is on top of the list. Table 9 summarises the
properties of the function update_in_BWG_buff.
– Function update_bwg updates the state and out-
put of BWG process. If BWG is empty, then
the function loads a coil from its input buffer

Table 9 Inputs and outputs of function update_in_BWG_buff

[state_in_BWG_buff,output_to_BWG]=update_in_BWG_buff(state_in_BWG_buff,out_to_in_BWG_buff,
BWG_flag_empty)
Inputs
state_in_BWG_buff List of coils in buffer at current time step
out_to_in_BWG_buff Empty matrix if there is no output from high bay or list of coils
BWG_nag_empty Flag indicates whether BWG is busy or not (1: BWG machine empty, 0: BWG machine busy)
Outputs
state_in_BWG_buff list of coils after transition (end of current time step)
output_to_BWG Empty matrix if there is no transfer from BWG, or else a coil to be transferred to BWG.
1004 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

Table 10 Inputs and outputs of function update_bwg

[state_BWG,time_BWG,out_to_out_buff]=update_bwg(state_BWG,time_BWG,output_to_BWG)
Inputs
state_BWG Coil being processed in BWG or an empty matrix at the beginning of time step
time_BWG Empty matrix if BWG empty; if BWG is busy, it gives the time step since the beginning of BWG process
output_to_BWG List of coils in the buffer located between high bay and BWG
Outputs
state_BWG Coil inside BWG machine at the end of time interval
time_BWG Updates the BWG cycle time. If BWG is loaded from empty, the time is reset to 1. If BWG is busy,
then the time clock increases by one. In case where BWG process is just finished,
time_BWG becomes an empty matrix
out_to_out_buff Output buffer. It is empty if BWG process still in progress, or BWG not busy,
else it loads a coil that has passed the BWG process

output_to_BWG ; else it updates its state internally
for the BWG work cycle (30 min). When the coil
completes the BWG process, it is loaded to the out-
put buffer out_to_out_buff. Table 10 summarises
the properties of the function update_bwg.
– Function update_output_buff updates the output
buffer after the BWG process. Note that this buffer
collects all coils (arranged in a list) that have
completed the whole process, and thus, it can be
deemed as the output buffer of the simulation
model. Table 11 shows the inputs and output of the
function update_output_buff.
– Function update_buff1_n updates the state of the
buffer which is located between high-bay and an-
nealing machines. This function checks first with
the aid of input out_to_buff1_n if there are coils
that can be loaded into one or more annealing
machines. The input anneal_flag_empty indicates
whether there are one or more empty annealing
machines to load the coils from out_to_buff1_n.
The summary of the function update_buff1_n is
given in Table 12.
– Function update_anneal1_n updates the state of
annealing machines. The number of annealing ma-
chines is specified by the user in GUI, and it is
passed to the function through the input param.
The function update_anneal1_n operates as fol-
lows: It checks if there is any annealing ma-
chine free and loads a quartet of coils from in-
put output_to_anneal into it. It also updates the
state of the annealing machines state_anneal and
loads the coils that have completed the annealing
process to the output output_from_anneal accord-
ing to the state of the output annealing buffer
state_out_anneal_buff. Table 13 summarises the in-
puts and outputs of the function update_anneal1_n.
– Function update_out_anneal_buff updates the
state of the buffer which is located between
annealing machines and high bay. Function should
be called either with output_from_anneal =[]
or output_to_highbay =[] (or both []). Note
that this buffer does not define its output,
which is ‘pulled in’ by the high bay. It is the
responsibility of the high bay (through the function
update_highbay ) to check that requested row size
of output_to_highbay does not exceed buffer’s
state dimension. Similarly, it is the responsibility
of the annealing machine (via update_anneal_n )
to ensure that row size of output_from_anneal
pushed into the buffer will not cause overflow (i.e.
buffer’s state dimension + output_from_anneal
<= buffer’s capacity). The inputs and output of
the function update_out_anneal_buff are given in
Table 14.
– Function update_in_cold_roll_buff updates the
state and output in the buffer which is located
between high-bay and cold rolling machine. This
function checks first if there is any coil from high
bay waiting to be loaded into the cold rolling ma-
chine via input out_to_in_cold_roll_buff. The input

Table 11 Inputs and outputs state_out_buff=update_output_buff(state_out_buff,out_to_out_buff)

of function
update_output_buff Inputs
state_out_buff List of coils in output buffer at the beginning of current time step
out_to_out_buff Coil that has just finished BWG process
Outputs
state_out_buff List of coils in output buffer at the end of current time interval
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1005

Table 12 Inputs and outputs of function update_buff1_n

[state_buff1_n,output_to_anneal]=update_buff1_n(state_buff1_n,out_to_buff1_n,anneal_flag_empty)
Inputs
state_buff1_n List of coils in buffer at current time step
out_to_buff1_n Empty matrix if there is no output from high bay or list of coils
anneal_flag_empty A n-dimension row vector where n is the number of annealing machines. If anneal_flag_empty(i)=1,
it means that the i-th annealing machine is empty and if anneal_flag_empty(i)=0 the i-th annealing
machine is busy
Outputs
state_buff1_n List of coils after transition (end of current time step)
output_to_anneal Empty matrix if there is no transfer to annealing machine, else a list of coils to be transferred

cold_roll_flag_empty indicates whether cold rolling
machine is empty or not. The summary of the func-
tion update_in_cold_roll_buff is given in Table 15.
– Function update_cold_roll updates the state of cold
rolling machine. This function operates as follows:
It checks if the cold rolling machine is free and
loads a coil from input output_to_cold_roll into
it. It also updates the state of the cold rolling
state_cold_roll and loads the coil that has com-
pleted the cold rolling process to the output out-
put_from_cold_roll according to the state of the
output cold rolling buffer state_out_cold_roll_buff.
Table 16 summarises the inputs and outputs of the
function update_cold_roll.
– Function update_out_cold_roll_buff updates the
state of the buffer which is located between cold
rolling machine and high bay. This function should
be called either with output_from_cold_roll =[] or
output_to_highbay =[] or both []. Note that this
buffer does not define its output, which is ‘pulled in’
by the high bay. It is the responsibility of the high
bay (through function update_highbay ) to check
that requested row size of output_to_highbay does
not exceed buffer’s state dimension. Similarly, it is

Table 13 Inputs and outputs of function update_anneal1_n

[state_anneal,index_state_anneal,time_anneal,output_from_anneal]=...
update_anneal1_n(state_anneal,index_state_anneal,time_anneal,output_to_anneal,
state_out_anneal_buff,param)
Inputs
state_anneal List of coils being annealed or empty matrix. Coils are listed vertically and the state dimension
of the i-th annealing machine is specified by the input index_state_anneal(i)
index_state_anneal Number of coils in i-th annealing machine for input state_anneal
time_anneal A n-vector (where n is the number of parallel annealing machines) whose i-th entry specifies the
time step since beginning of annealing in i-th machine in case i-th machine is busy. If i-th machine
is empty, then time_anneal(i)=−1
output_to_anneal List of coils from the buffer located between high bay and annealing machines
state_out_anneal_buff Current state of the output buffer of annealing machines. Used to calculate the output so that
no overflow occurs
param Parameters structure
Outputs
state_anneal List of coils inside annealing machines at the end of time interval; Coils are listed vertically and the
state dimension of the i-th annealing machine is specified by the output index_state_anneal(i)
index_state_anneal Number of coils in i-th annealing machine for output state_anneal
time_anneal A n-dimensional vector. If the i-th machine is busy, then time_anneal(i)=time_anneal(i)+1
If the annealing process has finished and there is no loaded output (for not causing overflow
to state_out_anneal_buff), time_anneal(i)=time_anneal(i) (time is frozen). When
a quartet of coils is loaded to the i-th, then time_anneal(i) reset to 1
If the i-th annealing machine is empty at the end of interval, then time_anneal(i)=−1
output_from_anneal List of coils contribution from the i-th annealing machine is an empty matrix if annealing is still in
progress or annealing in i-th machine has finished but output will cause overflow to
state_out_anneal_buff. Else output is stacked to the
output_from_anneal array in machine order
1006 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

Table 14 Inputs and outputs of function update_out_anneal_buff

state_out_anneal_buff=update_out_anneal_buff(state_out_anneal_buff,output_from_anneal,
output_to_highbay)
Inputs
state_out_anneal_buff List of coils at current time step
output_from_anneal Empty matrix if there is no output from annealing machines or list of coils
output_to_highbay Empty matrix if there is no input requested from high bay or list of coils
Outputs
state_out_anneal_buff List of coils in buffer after transition (end of current time step)

the responsibility of the cold rolling machine (via
update_cold_roll function) to ensure that row size
of output_from_cold_roll pushed into the buffer
will not cause overflow (i.e. that buffer’s state di-
mension + output_from_cold_roll <= buffer’s ca-
pacity).
The inputs and output of the function up-
date_out_cold_roll_buff are given in Table 17.
system under study, and it provides a significant insight
of the system’s characteristics. Since the overall model
has been implemented in Matlab code, the model can
be easily modified as required in order to meet alterna-
tive design specifications.
For ease in comparing the effect of different sce-
narios and for better performance evaluation of the
system, each scenario was assessed using a number of
defined metrics such as:

– Throughput rate, defined as the number of coils

4 Modelling cases and simulation performance
In this section, three main scenarios are conducted to
test the effectiveness of the developed simulation tool
and at the same time to bring out the most important
results. Simulation provides the means of testing the
behaviour of the system, using specific metrics and by
implementing a number of different scenarios. Since
this is, essentially, a discrete event simulation, it tracks
the sequence of events in the given production system
in discrete time steps. Several Matlab functions were
used in order to gather and manipulate specific model
data while final reports and figures generated after
each simulation present quantitative information about
important aspects of model (machine occupancy, num-
ber of cranes moves etc.) together with statistical data
based on certain metrics which can be used to evaluate
the model’s performance.
The proposed simulation model allows also the in-
vestigation of the dynamic behaviour of the production
Q j(N) that have been completely treated in
a specified simulation time period (days) N,
N
(N = 1, 2, 3, ...) in j scenario: T j(N) = i=1 Q j(i)
– Machine usage, defined as the percentage of a
machine centre M busy over Nth day in j scenario:
U Mj(N)%.
– High-bay capacity, defined as the percentage of
high-bay storage area occupied in Nth day in j
scenario: HB j(N)%.
– Crane moves, defined as the number of crane move-
ments in each machine centre M location and coils’
entry in j scenario: C Mj.
For better reading purposes of this paper, each ma-
chine centre M is defined as follows: A for annealing
machine, CR for cold rolling centre and B for BWG
machine centre. The model was validated on actual sys-

Table 15 Inputs and outputs of function update_in_cold_roll_buff

[state_in_cold_roll_buff,output_to_cold_roll]= ...
update_in_cold_roll_buff(state_in_cold_roll_buff,out_to_in_cold_roll_buff,cold_roll_flag_empty)
Inputs
state_in_cold_roll_buff List of coils in buffer at current time step
out_to_in_cold_roll_buff Empty matrix if there is no output from high bay or list of coils
cold_roll_flag_empty An integer indicates if cold rolling machine is busy or not (1: Cold rolling machine empty;
0: Cold rolling machine busy)
Outputs
state_in_cold_roll_buff List of coils after transition (end of current time step)
output_to_cold_roll Empty matrix if there is no transfer to cold rolling machine, else a list of coils to be transferred
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1007

Table 16 Inputs and outputs of function update_cold_roll

[state_cold_roll,time_cold_roll,output_from_cold_roll]= ...
update_cold_roll(state_cold_roll,time_cold_roll,output_to_cold_roll,
state_out_cold_roll_buff,param))
Inputs
state_cold_roll List of coils being cold-rolled or empty matrix
time_cold_roll Specifies time since the last start of cold rolling process
output_to_cold_roll Coil from the buffer located between high bay and cold rolling machine or empty matrix
state_out_cold_roll_buff Current state of the output buffer of the cold rolling machine. It is used to calculate
the output so that no overflow occurs
param Parameters structure
Outputs
state_cold_roll Returns the current coil which is being cold-rolled at the end of time interval or empty matrix.
time_cold_roll Time since last cold rolling begun at the end of current time step. If machine is busy,
then time_cold_roll=time_cold_roll+1. If cold rolling process is completed and there
is no loaded output, time_cold_roll=time_cold_roll (time is frozen). When a coil
is loaded, then time_cold_roll reset to 1
If the machine is empty at the end of interval, then time_cold_roll=−1
output_from_cold_roll Cold-rolled coil loaded to output buffer state_out_cold_roll_buff or empty matrix

tem data, provided by company produces high-quality
aluminium lithographic coils, with respect to buffer
sizes, throughput rates, crane moves and inventories.
The proposed model was deadlock-free, as it was found
after extensive simulations. This can be ensured in the
programme by limiting the total number of coils circu-
lating in the high-bay area and its feedback loop. In or-
der to gain further insight of the production system, the
following three different scenarios were investigated
via extensive simulation runs. These scenarios include:
1. Scenario 1: Simulation based on default (current)
production plant settings and layout
2. Scenario 2: Installing of an additional similar an-
nealing machine operating in parallel with other
three
3. Scenario 3: Reducing pre-set times the coils remain
in the high bay during cooling and after annealing
For better evaluation and comparison of all above
scenarios, it is assumed throughout the simulations that
initially the high-bay storage area is empty and that
no machine process is initiated before the start of the
simulation. It is also assumed that the loading rate of
coils entering the high-bay storage area is one every
20 min, while the maximum crane movements are lim-
ited to 60/h. The priorities of crane service to different
locations are set as follows: First priority is given to
the annealing process, second to cold rolling, third to
BWG and finally coil entry to the high-bay activity
is served last. Crane movements are executed in this
order until either no additional move is possible during
each step or maximum number of crane moves per
step is reached. Simulations of the first three scenarios
were performed for 992 coils entering the high-bay area
over a period of 4 weeks. These coils are depicted in
Table 18.
To ensure an equitable comparison across different
scenarios, we calculate throughput rate and high-bay
capacity metrics for a given number of 41 days (N = 41)
which is the fastest simulation time among the three
scenarios presented in next section. The fastest simu-
lation time for this production line implies that there is
no workload (coil treatment) left in all machine centres.

Table 17 Inputs and outputs of function update_out_cold_roll_buff

state_out_cold_roll_buff=update_out_cold_roll_buff(state_out_cold_roll_buff,
output_from_cold_roll,output_to_highbay)
Inputs
state_out_cold_roll_buff List of coils at start of current time step
output_from_cold_roll Empty matrix if there is no output from cold rolling machine or list of coils
output_to_highbay Empty matrix if there is no input requested from high bay or list of coils
Outputs
state_out_cold_roll_buff List of coils in buffer after transition (end of current time step)
1008 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

Table 18 The 992 coils used in simulation runs

Day Type No Type No Type No Type No Type No Type No
1 6 8 9 6 5 8 1 4 12 8
2 6 8 2 4 5 4 3 4 16 8
3 9 3 6 4 11 4 4 8 10 8 3 4
4 9 12 1 4 13 8 2 4 5 10
5 6 12 3 4 7 4 10 4 11 4
6 5 8 6 12 8 4 17 4 16 4
7 9 3 12 4 15 8 14 4 2 12
8 6 4 5 8 3 4 9 8 1 8
9 5 8 2 4 6 4 3 4 16 8 7 4
10 8 3 5 4 12 4 4 8 10 8
11 8 12 1 4 6 8 9 4 5 8
12 5 10 3 4 7 4 10 4 11 4 2 6
13 5 8 6 12 15 4 18 4 16 4
14 6 4 5 10 8 4 9 8 1 8
15 1 12 9 4 5 8 13 4 14 10 4 4
16 3 4 5 4 7 4 10 4 11 4
17 9 6 6 4 11 4 4 8 10 8
18 9 7 1 4 13 8 2 8 5 10
19 6 8 9 6 17 8 1 4 12 8 3 4
20 6 12 7 4 2 8 9 8 5 10
21 8 8 3 8 7 4 10 4 11 4
22 1 3 6 4 15 8 4 4 2 8 14 4
23 6 12 9 8 7 4 13 8 1 8 11 4
24 5 8 2 8 3 4 8 4 16 4
25 7 3 5 4 12 4 14 8 10 8
26 4 8 1 4 15 8 9 4 5 10 6 8
27 5 12 3 8 7 9 10 4 11 4
28 5 8 6 12 15 4 18 4 16 4
29 6 4 17 8 8 8 9 8 5 8
30 18 4 2 8 3 9 9 10

4.1 Scenario 1: simulation based on current production A good indicator of a smooth flow of semi-finished
plant settings and layout coils through the production system is the capacity
changes in the high-bay storage area. As stated before,
This scenario incorporates the default production plant the high-bay storage area’s behaviour is similar to an
machinery, settings and layout based on the description
given in Section 2.2. Simulation results showed that 1000
the overall throughput rate T1 (41) was 914 coils in
900
41 days. Figure 4 depicts the changes in throughput
rate during the full simulation. Note that despite the 800
fact that 992 coils entered the high bay in 30 days, only 700
Throughput per day

933 of them converted to finished products while 59

600
coils (13.4% of maximum high-bay capacity) remained
inside the high-bay storage area due to annealing and 500

cold rolling grouping restrictions as Tables 3 and 4 400

indicate. 300
It is clear that the first coil exited the litho cen-
200
tre in the 8th day, while the throughput rate was in-
creased dramatically between the 10th and 42nd day. 100

That happened mostly due to several other activities 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
(coils’ grouping, annealing, cold rolling, cooling proce- No of days
dures etc.) that needed to be performed prior to BWG
treatment. Fig. 4 Throughput rate for scenario 1
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1009

110
intermediate buffer where all coils are stored before

Percentage ANNEALING furnace occupancy

they are transferred for annealing, cold rolling or BWG 100

treatment. 90
Figure 5 presents the high-bay storage area occu- 80
pancy per day. It is clear that in the first 9 days, 70
the capacity increases dramatically as coils enter the
60
storage area from the hot-line. Then between the 9th
and 29th day the high-bay capacity increases to 88% 50

of maximum high-bay capacity with the presence of 40

fluctuations while after the 29th day the high-bay stor- 30
age area capacity starts to decrease until the 43rd day 20
as a result of the last coils leaving the high-bay area
10
for BWG treatment and the fact that no coils enter the
0
high bay from hot-line after the 30th day. Note that the 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
average (mean value) percentage of high-bay capacity No of Days
μHB1 % in 41 days is:
Fig. 6 Annealing furnaces occupancy for scenario 1
41
HB1 (i)%
μHB1 % = i=1
= 58.59% (1)
41

The high-bay capacity after the 43rd day is 13.4%
and comprises a proof indicator that 59 racks out of 440
in high bay are still occupied due to the fact that after
the 43rd day there is no BWG process.
Figure 6 demonstrates the percentage of annealing
furnaces’ occupancy over time. It is shown that the
annealing process operated for more than 35 days al-
most without cease apart from a small time interval
occurred between first and second day. Figure 6 also
depicts that the percentage values were in most cases
more than 97% highlighting the fact that at least one
annealing furnace each day is fully occupied. The aver-
age percentage of annealing machine usage μU A1 % for
36 days is:
36
i=1 U A1 (i)%
μU A1 % = = 95.8% (2)
36
According to cold rolling machine centre data, Fig. 7
shows a high usage percentage just before the 10th day.
The starting day of cold rolling (6th) brings out the
grouping procedure followed by annealing. Figure 7
also attests that the last cold rolling activity took place
on 41st day which is reasonable since the last annealing
cycle was completed at the beginning of the 36th day.

90 90
Percentage COLD-ROLLING machine occupancy

80 80
Percentage HIGHBAY occupancy

70 70

60
60

50
50

40
40

30
30

20
20

10
10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
No of Days No of Days

Fig. 5 High-bay storage area occupancy for scenario 1 Fig. 7 Cold rolling machine centre occupancy for scenario 1
1010 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

35
The mean value percentage of cold rolling machine
usage μUCR1 % for 36 days is:
30
36
i=1 U CR1 (i)%

Crane movements per hour

μUCR1 % = = 61.16% (3) 25
36
20
Figure 8 illustrates the fact that coils enter the BWG
machine centre in batches. More specifically, the BWG 15
area is busy 35 days during the entire simulation in
which all coils passed through the BWG stage, while 10
the last BWG activity took place on the 42nd day,
as one full day of cooling time is necessary after the 5

last cold rolling process occurred in 41st day. The av-

erage percentage of BWG machine usage μU B1 % for 0
0 120 240 360 480 600 720 840 960 1080
34 days is: No of hours

34 Fig. 9 Crane movements in total for scenario 1

i=1 U B1 (i)%
μU B1 % = = 74.78% (4)
34

Another useful observation concerning the activities 4.2 Scenario 2: installing of an additional annealing
taking place in the litho centre is reflected by crane machine operating in parallel with the other three
movements and the areas served during the coils’ trans-
fer. Figure 9 illustrates the number of crane move- The second scenario examines the case of installing an
ments in total (all services). Simulation runs indicated additional annealing machine in the plant. Simulation
that the maximum number of crane movements was results showed that the total throughput rate T2 (41) is
32, although the maximum number of potential crane now 937 coils over 41 days. Figure 10 illustrates the
movements per hour was set before the simulation start changes in throughput rate for the second scenario.
to 60. The percentage of throughput change T1,2 % between
Table 19 provides information on the total number scenarios 1 and 2 for the simulation period of 41 days
of crane movements in terms of their location through- can be found as:
out the entire simulation. Note that the crane spends T2 − T1
its most time to serve the cold rolling activity while the T1,2 % = 100% = 2.45% (5)
T1
BWG is the centre where the crane has the minimum
number of routes. As expected, the throughput rate has increased in
comparison with scenario 1 by 2.45%. Note again that
despite the fact that 992 coils entered the high bay over
a period of 4 weeks, 937 of them have left the litho cen-
100 tre, while 55 coils remained as semi-finished products
at the end of the simulation due to annealing and cold
Percentage of BWG machine occupancy

90
rolling grouping restrictions as shown in Tables 3 and 4.
80
Although the first coil exited the litho centre be-
70 tween 9th and 10th day, instead of the 8th as in the first
60 scenario, the curve shown in Fig. 10 has steeper ascent
50
while the throughput rate was increased dramatically
between the 10th and 41st day.
40

30
Table 19 Total crane movements of each location for the three
20
scenarios
10
Scenario Coil Annealing Cold rolling Cold rolling BWG
0 entry machines input output machine
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
1 992 1,960 2,580 2,580 933
No of Days
2 992 1,968 2,600 2,600 937
Fig. 8 BWG machine centre occupancy for scenario 1 3 992 1,960 2,560 2,560 913
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1011

900 The percentage of high-bay capacity change

μUHB1 μUHB2 % between scenarios 1 and 2 for the simu-
800
lation period of 41 days can be found as:
700
μUHB2 % − μUHB1 %
Throughput per day

600 μUHB1 μUHB2 % = 100% = −8.82%

μUHB1
500
(7)
400

300
Equation 7 indicates that high-bay storage area can
be reduced by installing a fourth annealing machine in
200
litho centre. The value of μUHB1 μUHB2 % is a useful
100 indicator and can be used by the managers to optimise
0
the manufacturing process performance subject to con-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 straint capacity of the high-bay storage area.
No days
Figure 12 shows the percentage of annealing fur-
Fig. 10 Throughput rate for scenario 2 naces’ occupancy over time, where more variations in
usage displayed in comparison to the previous scenario.
This is a logical outcome since an additional anneal-
Capacity changes per hour in the high-bay storage ing machine (working in parallel with other three)
area can be viewed in Fig. 11. Similarly to the first can serve the coils in high-bay area. The mean value
scenario in the first 9 days, the capacity increases while percentage of annealing machine usage μU A2 % for
coils enter the storage area from the hot-line. Then 30 days is:
between the 9th and 30th day, the high-bay capac- 30
U A2 (i)%
ity reaches now the 81% of maximum high-bay ca- μU A2 % = i=1 = 86.64% (8)
30
pacity while after the 31st day the high-bay storage
area occupancy starts to decrease as a result of the The percentage of annealing centre usage change
number of coils entering the BWG machine centre μU A1 μU A2 % between scenarios 1 and 2 for the sim-
exceeds the number of coils returning to the high-bay ulation period where annealing machines were busy in
storage area after annealing or cold rolling process. each case:
The average percentage of high-bay capacity μHB2 % in μU A2 % − μU A1 %
μU A1 μU A2 % = 100% = −9.56%
41 days is: μU A1
41
HB2 (i)% (9)
μHB2 % = i=1 = 53.43% (6)
41
The negative percentage of μU A1 μU A2 % highlights
again the presence of variations in annealing sessions

90
110
Percentage ANNEALING furnace occupancy

80 100
Percentage HIGHBAY occupancy

90
70
80
60
70
50 60

40 50

40
30
30
20
20
10 10

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
No of Days No of Days

Fig. 11 High-bay storage area occupancy for scenario 2 Fig. 12 Annealing furnaces occupancy for scenario 2
1012 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

in second scenario. Note also that the value of μU A2 %
corresponds to the fourth annealing machines usage
operating in parallel in total busy time of 30 days in
contrast to the three machines occupied over 36 days
in first scenario. This value highlights the improvement
in annealing machines utilisation and discloses the fact
that managers can push the production to the high-bay
area by increasing slightly the rate that coils enter this
area.
Figure 13 depicts the percentage of cold rolling cen-
tre occupancy. It can be inferred that apart from a small
inactive period occurred in 13th day, the machine was
occupied for more than 41% between the 7th and 37th
day. Note also, with two exceptions of a few hours
(23th and 36th day, respectively), that the cold rolling
machine in this time interval of 30 days was treating
coils continuously for almost more than a half day.
Figure 13 also attests that the last cold rolling activity
took place on 38th day which is reasonable since the last
annealing cycle was completed in 30th day. The average
percentage of cold rolling machine usage muUCR2 % for
the overall busy time of 34 days is:
34
U CR2 (i)%
μUCR2 % = i=1 = 65.26% (10)
34
The percentage of cold rolling centre usage change
μUCR1 μUCR2 % between scenarios 1 and 2 for the simu-
lation period of 41 days can be found as:
μUCR2 % − μUCR1 %
μUCR1 μUCR2 % =
μUCR1
The percentage of μUCR1 μUCR2 % demonstrates a
comparably competent change in cold rolling activity.
Furthermore, it can be shown by Figs. 13 and 7 that
cold rolling sessions in second scenario lasted 33 days
in comparison with the first scenario where the overall
cold rolling process was 36 days, while the last cold
rolling session in second scenario took place on 38th
day instead of 40th day in first scenario. Hence, the
installation of a fourth annealing machine has also a
significant impact on cold rolling machine utilisation.
The BWG activity in second scenario is illustrated in
Fig. 14. It is clear that the BWG area is busy 33 days
during the entire simulation in which all coils passed
through the BWG stage, while the last BWG activity
took place at the end of the 41th day, as one full day
of cooling time is necessary after the last cold rolling
process occurred in 38th day. The average percentage
of BWG machine usage muU B2 % for 32 days is:
32
U B2 (i)%
μU B2 % = i=1 = 82.62% (12)
32
Similarly, in order to compare BWG machine centre
performances for both scenarios, it is very useful to
derive the percentage of BWG centre usage change
μU B1 μU B2 % between scenarios 1 and 2 for the simu-
lation period of 41 days as follows:
μU B2 %−μU B1 %
μU B1 μU B2 % = 100% = 10.48% (13)
μU B1
The value of μU B1 μU B2 % indicates that BWG ma-
chine centre performed better in second scenario. This
100% = 6.71% outcome is supported also by the fact that the total
time BWG is operative in second scenario for 32 days
(11) instead of 34 in scenario 1.
Figure 15 shows the total number of crane move-
ments at all four locations. Simulation runs indicate that

90 110
Percentage COLD-ROLLING machine occupancy

80 100

90
70
Percentage BWG occupancy

80
60
70
50 60

40 50

40
30
30
20
20
10 10

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
No of Days No of Days

Fig. 13 Cold rolling machine centre occupancy for scenario 2 Fig. 14 BWG machine centre occupancy for scenario 2
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1013

30
cooling time in the high-bay storage area is set to 36 h
instead of 72 in scenario 1. Simulation results show that
25 the throughput rate is now 910 coils over 41 days. It
is clear that the throughput rate has been decreased
Crane movements per hour

20 compared to the corresponding throughput of 914 coils

15
10
5 T1,3 (41)% =
0 The small value of T1,3 (41) denotes the fact that
0 120 240 360 480 600
No of Hours
Fig. 15 Crane movements in total for scenario 2
the maximum number of crane movements per hour is
27 in contrast to the first scenario where the maximum
number of movements was 32. This observation reveals
the fact that when a fourth annealing machine is in-
stalled, the crane can serve all the annealing furnaces in
the interspace of one hour, provided that the maximum
number of potential crane movements per hour is set
to 60.
Table 19 gives information for the total number of
crane movements at each location. Note again that
the crane performed more movements in serving cold
rolling machine centre while the BWG is the location
which is served for least amount of time than the other
three. The above observation indicates the fact that
by installing a fourth annealing machine, the grouping
procedure of 20 or 40 coils for the cold rolling process
can be performed now faster and that the crane can
serve cold rolling location more times in comparison
with the scenario 1. More specifically, the total number
of crane movements in cold rolling machine centre (in
and out movements) in second scenario was CCR2 =
in the first scenario. Figure 16 depicts the changes in
throughput rate for the third scenario. The percentage
of throughput change T1,3 (41)% between scenarios
1 and 3 for the simulation period of 41 days can be
found as:
T3 (41) − T1 (41)
100% = −0.44% (14)
T1 (41)
720 840 960 1080
there was no significant change in throughput rate by
following scenario 3. However, by comparing Figs. 4
and 16, it can be seen that between the 10th and 36th
day, the curve representing the throughput changes for
scenario 3 is steeper and thus more finished coils at
this time interval exit the BWG process. As Fig. 16
indicates, after the 36th day, the throughput curve ap-
pears to have lower increment rate. To help assess this
observation, we need to calculate the percentage of
throughput changes T1,3 (36)% for the time interval
of N = 36 days.
T3 (36) − T1 (36)
T1,3 (36)% = 100% = 10.46% (15)
T1 (36)
Equation 15 shows substantially improvement in
throughput rates for the first 36 days where all
machines centres achieved in average high usage
percentages.
Occupancy changes per hour in the high-bay stor-
age area are depicted in Fig. 17. Similarly to the first
scenario during the first 8 days, occupancy increases
1000
900

5,200 instead of CCR1 = 5,136 in first scenario. Note 800

also that the number of crane movements having served 700
Throughput per day

the annealing machines and BWG machine in second

600
scenario was C A2 = 1,968 and C B2 = 937, respectively,
instead of C A1 = 1,960 and C B1 = 933 for scenario 1. 500

As it was expected, there was no change in crane move- 400

ments for coil entries (992) into the litho centre.
300

200
4.3 Scenario 3: reducing pre-set times the coils remain
in high bay during cooling and after annealing 100

0
In this scenario, the number of annealing machines 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
No days
is reset to three, but now the cooling time after all
annealing procedures is reduced by 50%. Thus, the Fig. 16 Throughput rate for scenario 3
1014 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018

90 110

Percentage ANNEALING furnace occupancy

100
80
90
Percentage HIGHBAY occupancy

70
80
60
70
50 60

40 50

40
30
30
20
20
10 10

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
No of Days No of Days

Fig. 17 High-bay storage area occupancy for scenario 3 Fig. 18 Annealing furnaces occupancy for scenario 3

while coils enter the storage area from hot-line. This

represents the ‘transient’ response of the system, as
initially the high bay was assumed to be empty. How-
ever, the high-bay storage area fulfillment rate in first
7 days now is greater than the corresponding rate in
first scenario. Then, in the interim period between the
8th and 14th day, the average high-bay capacity remains
constant (54% of maximum capacity) with the presence
again of small fluctuations due to the fact that the daily
number of entry and exit coils into the storage area
have almost the same value. Next, the high-bay area
starts to increase until the 30th day where no coils left
to enter the litho centre.
The average percentage of high-bay capacity μHB3 %
in 41 days is:
41
HB3 (i)%
μHB3 % = i=1 = 51.9% (16)
41
The percentage of high-bay capacity change
μUHB1 μUHB3 % between scenarios 1 and 3 for the
simulation period of 41 days can be found as:
μUHB3 % − μUHB1 %
μUHB1 μUHB3 % =
μUHB1
Equation 17 provides a good indication of better
high-bay storage area exploitation. Note that the max-
imum percentage of high-bay occupation is 80.5% on
the 29th day.
Figure 18 depicts the percentage of the three anneal-
ing furnaces occupancy over time. These values were in
excess of 95% for the first 35 days, highlighting again
the fact that at least one annealing furnace each day is
fully occupied. Figure 18 shows also that the last anneal-
ing cycle occurs at the 36th day. More specifically, the
usage of the annealing machine this day is 3.8% and
only four coils have been annealed. The mean value
percentage of annealing machine usage μU A3 % = for
36 days is:
36
i=1 U A3 (i)%
μU A3 % = = 95.95% (18)
36
The percentage of annealing centre usage change
U A1,3 (41)% between scenarios 1 and 3 for the sim-
ulation period of 41 days can be calculated as:
μU A3 % − μU A1 %
μU A1 μU A3 % = 100% = 0.16% (19)
μU A1
Equation 19 denotes the small difference in anneal-
ing cycles in two scenarios. This is a presumable re-
sult since the changes in scenario 3 (50% reduction
of cooling time after annealing treatment) has been
considered in essence after the annealing process.
The cold rolling machine centre usage for the third
100% = −11.41%
scenario can be viewed in Fig. 19, where the main
(17) occupancy time takes place between the 15th and 23rd
day. The last day of cold rolling activity is the 40th day
which is again reasonable since the last annealing cycle
occurred during the 36th day. Note that cooling time
after annealing for this scenario is set to 36 h (1.5 day).
The average percentage of cold rolling machine us-
age μUCR3 % for 37 days is:
37
i=1 U CR3 (i)%
μUCR3 % = = 59.15% (20)
37
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1015

Percentage COLD-ROLLING machine occupancy 90 110

100
80
90
70

Percentage BWG Occupancy

80
60
70
50 60

40 50

40
30
30
20
20
10 10

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
No of Days
No of Days

Fig. 19 Cold rolling machine centre occupancy for scenario 3 Fig. 20 BWG machine centre occupancy for scenario 3

The percentage of BWG centre usage change

The percentage of cold rolling centre usage change
μUCR1 μUCR2 % between scenarios 1 and 3 for the simu-
lation period of 41 days can be found as:
μUCR3 % − μUCR1 %
μUCR1 μUCR3 % =
μUCR1
The value of μUCR1 μUCR3 % in Eq. 21 is a small num-
ber and consequently cannot capture any considerable
changes in cold rolling process between two scenarios
described in this section. However, it can be seen by
Fig. 19 that the first cold rolling session began in day 4
while the last occurred in day 40. By noticing the Fig. 7,
which shows the cold rolling machine centre occupancy
for scenario 1, the corresponding first and last cold
rolling session took place on days 6 and 41, respectively.
This useful observation highlights the inactive time
periods for cold rolling machine centre in the overall
simulation of 41 days.
Figure 20 illustrates that in a similar way with the
other two scenarios, coils enter the BWG machine
centre in batches. This time the BWG is busy for only
35 days during the whole simulation period for which
all coils passed the BWG stage, while the last BWG
activity takes place on the 42nd day (again at least 1 day
after the last cold rolling process has been completed).
The average percentage of BWG machine usage
μU B3 % for 35 days is:
35
i=1 U B3 (i)%
μU B3 % = = 74.1%
35
μU B1 μU B2 % between scenarios 1 and 3 for the active
simulation periods can be given by:
μU B3 % − μU B1 %
μU B1 μU B2 % = 100% = −0.91%
μU B1
100% = −3.27%
(23)
(21) The small value of μU B1 μU B2 % does not attest any
potential dissimilarity in BWG machines’ performance.
This outcome is supported also by the fact that the total
throughput in scenario 1 is only slightly better than the
throughput in scenario 3. Furthermore, by considering
Eqs. 21 and 23, it is obvious that the corresponding av-
erage performances of cold rolling and BWG machine
centres in scenarios 1 and 3, respectively, displayed
similar behaviour. However, it is worthy of remark that
the average BWG machine occupancy percentage in
the last five busy days in scenario 3 is μU B3 (38 − 42)% =
51.18% instead of μU B1 (38 − 42)% = 86.46% in sce-
nario 1. Additionally, the average cold rolling machine
occupancy percentage in the last 5 days in scenario
3 is μUCR3 (36 − 40)% = 47.14% instead of μUCR1 (37 −
41)% = 58.68% in scenario 1. This observation comes
in useful by reckoning also the difference in total
throughput in both scenarios. More specifically, the
42
throughput rate in scenario 1 is T1 (42) = i=1 Q1 (i) =
933 while the corresponding throughput rate for sce-
42
nario 3 is T3 (42) = i=1 Q3 (i) = 913.
It is evident that despite the fact of coils’ cooling time
reduction after annealing treatment in third scenario,
there were imperceptible changes in overall machines’
performance. This outcome can be explained mainly
(22)
by the different grouping decisions in cold rolling and
1016
30
25
Crane moves per hour and average
20
15
10
5
0 of 36 days were also achieved in the case when the
0 5 10 15
Fig. 21 Crane movements in total for scenario 3
annealing processes performed in each scenario. As a
matter of this fact, different decision making through-
out the production line in first and third scenarios
produced 933 and 813 coils, respectively, while machine
centres exhibited different usage efficiency.
The total number of crane movements at all four
locations is shown in Fig. 21. The maximum number
of movements is 30 instead of 32 in the first scenario.
Table 19 presents the total number of crane movements
at each location. Note again that the crane performed
less movements in serving cold rolling machine centre
CCR3 = 2,560 while the BWG is the location which is
served for least amount of time C B3 = 913 in com-
parison to the other three. It is clear that there are
small changes in total crane movements in regard to
scenario 1.
Table 19 summarises the corresponding data for the
third scenario, related to the average usage of the an-
nealing machine centres, cold rolling activity, high-bay
storage area capacity and BWG work centre.
4.4 Performance and simulation results analysis
The overall conclusion that can be drawn from the sim-
ulation results for both scenarios 2 and 3 together with
comparisons with the main findings of baseline scenario
1 is that potential assessment in the production system
performance can be obtained. More specifically, it was
found that installing an additional annealing machine
or introduction of new annealing technology results in
a considerable increase in the overall throughput rate
and also in increased machine utilisation in the cold
rolling and BWG processes.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018
Moreover, crane movements per unit time are
greater than those derived in scenario 1, which sug-
gests an increase in work-in-process inventory. This
indicates that the second scenario provided not only
faster throughput rates but also a smoother flow of coils
through the production line. Finally, throughout sim-
ulation intermediate storage area (high bay) exhibited
lower capacity rates. Thus, simulations of this type may
be used (together with economic considerations such
as expected future demand levels, costs, depreciation
factors etc.) to make rational decisions about future
investments.
Increased throughput rates for an aggregate period
20 25 30 35 40 45
No of Days pre-set times the coils remain in high-bay storage area
during cooling after annealing are reduced. Addition-
ally, significant capacity changes in intermediate stor-
age area have been noticed. Simulation runs indicate
that scenario 3 provided the best capacity utilisation
of high bay intermediate storage area among all other
scenarios. This outcome may prompt managers to use
push policies in hot-line section or to increase slightly
the entry rate coils enter the high-bay storage area in
cases there is no bottleneck machine or any serious
malfunction in any machine centre.
The results appearing in Table 20 confirm that as it
was expected the overall production times and response
levels—observed when running the system under pre-
set times reduction after annealing process—were bet-
ter than those observed in the case of baseline scenario.
However, mainly due to different grouping decision,
the system’s performance with respect to machines’
utilisation and crane movements did not show any
significance changes. Still, a better scheduling scheme
can be followed by managers at the beginning of pro-
duction line. Towards this achievement, managers can
use the proposed model to evaluate the possibility of
improving also utilisation for every alternative machine
configuration. The report and simulation results are
shown in Table 20.
4.5 Conclusions
This work has presented a technique for the modelling
and simulation of an aluminium coils production plant
by using Matlab software. The effects of physical and
capacity constraints (e.g. available machinery, storage
constraints of intermediate inventory buffers, pre-set
time changes) were analysed. Different scenarios were
assessed and analysed by measuring certain impor-
tant metrics such as throughput, crane moves per unit
time and machine utilisation. The proposed model was
found to encapsulate in detail the behaviour of the
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2011) 53:993–1018 1017

Table 20 Report and simulation results for all scenarios

Day Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3
U A1 % U CR1 % U B1 % HB1 (N)% U A2 % U CR2 % U B2 % HB2 (N)% U A3 % U CR3 % U B3 % HB3 (N)%
1 88.2 0 0 2.5 78.8 0 0 2.6 88.2 0 0 2.5
2 98.7 0 0 9 74.1 0 0 9.8 98.7 0 0 9
3 99.2 0 0 15.4 85.9 0 0 15.9 99.2 0 0 15.4
4 99.2 0 0 23.1 90 0 0 23.4 99.2 3.8 0 23
5 99.2 0 0 30.4 82.2 0 0 31.5 99.2 6.6 0 30.4
6 99.2 7.3 0 37.3 80.9 7.3 0 38.4 99.2 33 0 37.1
7 99.1 29.2 0 44.3 87.3 34 0 44.9 99.1 67.4 0 44.1
8 99.3 41 0 51.4 80 52.4 0 52.5 99.3 65.3 41.7 49.1
9 99.1 68.8 15.6 58.3 84 70.1 0 59.5 99.1 75.3 27.8 53
10 99.2 69.1 26 60.9 79 71.5 37.5 63.3 99.2 52.4 88.2 54.2
11 99.3 72.6 68.8 64.5 86.5 71.9 86.5 64.4 99.3 66 87.5 54.7
12 99.2 45.8 90.3 66.2 89.7 72.6 87.2 63.5 99.2 54.5 87.5 54
13 99.1 69.8 87.2 65.4 83.3 67.7 87.8 62.8 99.1 55.9 88.9 53.9
14 99.3 61.8 88.9 64.9 80.9 50 92 64.1 99.3 59 81.2 53.4
15 99.1 52.8 87.2 65.9 87.8 69.1 87.2 64.8 99.1 55.2 46.9 57.2
16 99.3 61.1 50.7 66.4 81.6 70.5 76.7 63.8 99.2 71.2 49 59.6
17 99.1 67.4 56.9 67.9 74.5 70.8 55.6 64.8 99.2 71.5 50.7 60.3
18 99.2 72.9 72.2 70.7 93.4 69.1 89.2 66.3 99.3 72.6 76.4 63.1
19 99.3 72.2 58.3 74.7 97.1 72.6 84 66.6 99.2 73.3 88.5 64
20 99.2 71.5 80.2 76.8 98.2 73.3 61.1 68.4 99.2 71.9 92.4 66.4
21 99.2 71.5 87.8 77.6 85.3 69.1 88.5 70.1 99.2 56.6 88.2 68.4
22 99.2 74.7 91.7 78 76 69.1 93.1 71.6 99.2 57.3 90.6 67.5
23 99.2 49.7 87.8 79.5 95.3 68.4 88.9 73.3 99.2 55.6 77.8 69.7
24 99.1 59.4 92 81.4 93 70.5 77.8 73.7 99.1 72.2 56.9 72.2
25 99.2 72.9 85.4 80.4 87.5 72.2 87.2 72.7 99.3 71.2 69.1 72.9
26 99.2 69.4 77.4 81.8 92.1 70.1 90.6 71.9 99.1 71.5 88.9 75
27 99.2 73.3 84.7 84.6 92.1 70.1 90.6 71.9 99.2 69.8 88.5 76.2
28 99.2 63.5 86.8 84.9 99.2 70.8 88.2 74.2 99.2 72.2 91 77.5
29 99.3 69.8 92.7 85.7 95.1 67.4 84.7 74.5 99.3 67.4 88.5 78.2
30 99.2 68.1 86.8 86.7 95.9 69.8 78.1 74.6 99.3 72.6 80.6 79
31 99.2 49 89.2 80.4 84.7 71.9 60.8 77.6 99.2 70.5 77.1 74.4
32 99.2 68.4 79.2 73.1 0 67.4 86.8 77 99.1 74 89.9 67.9
33 99.1 67.7 85.4 67.6 0 71.5 74 69.1 99.2 70.8 88.2 60.1
34 99.2 44.1 71.5 61.6 0 71.2 82.6 61.9 99.1 62.2 92.7 54.3
35 87.4 70.1 59 56.4 0 74 87.5 53.6 89.4 54.2 86.5 48.2
36 0.2 73.3 61.5 54.5 0 78.5 86.1 46.5 3.8 71.5 89.2 44.2
37 0 72.6 89.6 48.3 0 72.6 89.2 39.1 0 50.3 87.2 36.2
38 0 62.5 88.9 41 0 78.1 92.4 33.6 0 50.7 59.7 30.1
39 0 72.6 89.6 34.5 0 24.3 91.7 28.1 0 28.5 56.2 27.2
40 0 53.8 83.3 27.8 0 59 92.7 23.2 0 34.7 49.7 23.6
41 0 31.9 89.9 20.5 0 0 92.7 18.8 0 0 71.2 20.9
42 0 0 80.6 15.3 0 0 85.4 14.2 0 0 19.1 18

real production system; this is flexible in the sense
that it can accommodate numerous alternative system
configurations and different scenarios on an equal foot-
ing all assessed on actual production data.
Hence, the proposed model can help the production
management process of a typical complex manufac-
turing environment by providing important knowledge
about the system, thus resulting to better choice of
scheduling schemes. It is also clear that the assess-
ment of all alternative scenarios can aid significantly
decision-making management procedures especially re-
lated to cost over benefit investment decisions, and it
helps developing further productive incentives.
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