Minimizing total setup cost for a metal casting company

The optimizing sequence of production for a set of customer orders - in order to minimize machine set-up time and costs - is one of the typical problems found in many manufacturing systems. In this paper, we develop a simulation model to capture a practical system of a metal casting company in Queensland, Australia, and optimize the production sequence for a set of customer orders. The method addressed in the paper can be applied to other optimization problems in manufacturing industry.