| Article ID: | iaor20013835 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Volume: | 129 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page Number: | 355 |
| End Page Number: | 361 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2001 |
| Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
| Authors: | Everett J.E. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence: decision support, simulation: applications |
Iron ore quality depends upon successive shipments being uniform in composition, not only in iron but also in several other minerals. The production process involves several stages of scheduling, from the mine face, through railing, stockpiling and ship loading. At each of these stages there is potential to improve the composition uniformity through appropriate scheduling procedures. This paper discusses a variety of algorithms and simulation models developed to aid these scheduling decisions.