Annealing the Anneal

Sequencing One Shared Heat-Treatment Furnace by Simulated Annealing

A research poster from the School of Continuous Improvement formulates a teaching workshop's single box furnace as a batch-processing machine with asymmetric, sequence-dependent changeovers and sequences twelve teaching weeks of booked loads by simulated annealing. The best sequences found cut the hours the empty chamber spends changing temperature by a little over half and, in eleven weeks of twelve, never raise the setpoint; a one-line sort by descending setpoint comes within four per cent of the search but returns nine loads late.

@misc{slop_v3i8mo,
  author       = {Eivind Onwuka and Osei Vandermeer and Casimir Beng},
  title        = {Annealing the Anneal: Sequencing One Shared Heat-Treatment Furnace by Simulated Annealing},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.v3i8mo},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-a-batch-sequencing-study-v3i8mo/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}