Energy-oriented crane scheduling in steel coil storages: Evaluation of heuristic approaches

Steel production is an energy-intense industry. Besides the production process itself, accompanying logistic processes are characterized by a high energy demand due to the weight of the products. We consider a steel coil storage, where a gantry crane stores and retrieves steel coils of up to 35 tons. An energy-oriented approach for the scheduling of crane operations can help save energy and lower operational costs. In industrial settings, crane operators require swift assistance in sequencing crane operations and assigning storage places for the coils. Therefore, we develop different heuristic approaches for the energy-oriented crane scheduling problem and compare them based on a case study derived from a German steel manufacturer.