Real-Time Storage Location Assignment for Steel Coil Yards: An Industrial Case Study

Steel coil warehouse operations involve complex storage and handling decisions governed by strict physical, spatial, and temporal constraints. In large coil yards, overhead cranes share constrained operating areas, while coils are stacked in pyramidal configurations that limit accessibility and may induce costly reshuffling operations. This paper addresses the online Storage Location Assignment Problem (SLAP) arising in such dynamic environments. We propose a real-time greedy heuristic that assigns inbound coils to storage berths while accounting for stacking feasibility, crane operability, and future retrieval needs. The heuristic operates \textit{online} and is guided by an \textit{offline} integrated plan obtained from exact models for the SLAP and the Crane Scheduling Problem. The approach was tailored to the operations of a large industrial coil yard and integrated into the Warehouse Management System (WMS) of a leading steel producer in Brazil, supporting round-the-clock (24/7) crane operations. Preliminary results suggest improved yard throughput.