The price of copper fluctuates between wide limits. The cost of recovering copper from scrap, therefore, can come perilously close to the selling price. It is highly desirable to manage the recovery process better, but the complexity of the process makes it impossible for the furnace operator to consider all of the variables involved. This is an ideal situation for use of a computer as an aid to the operation (computer-aided production). The approach is to produce five software modules which can be used sequentially and iteratively to select, from the material available in the scrapyard piles, a series of furnace charges that are optimum from an economic standpoint, including purchasing practices and inventory control.
