EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

Besides modern equipment and sophisticated process automation systems effective steel production requires a production management system which is coordinating the production processes on the shop floor and integrating those with the commercial processes. Implementation time has direct influence on the return of investment of such a system. The product driven project methodology, a new project execution approach developed by PSI, recently lead to a successful implementation of a complex production management system for a Plate Mill line within six months. The project combined functionality in the areas of planning, production tracking, yard logistics and quality management into one integrated system, which was itself again seamlessly incorporated into the customer’s IT landscape of a newly introduced SAP system, an existing upstream raw material provision and a greenfield Plate Mill line. The production management system comprises a series of equipment and resources, including a slab yard, reheating furnaces, descaling, rolling mill, forced cooling, levelers, cooling beds, shear lines, flame cutting and semi-finished/finished product yards. Some factors have been observed to be important for the success of the project, such as: - The implementation team had expertise on customer processes - Experts provided directly at the beginning of the project a training on the PSImetals Standard System, to then limit the following specification phase to a mere Fit Gap analysis. - The external interfaces were either directly based on existing PSImetals Standard Interfaces or closely aligned to these interfaces - The project was split into smaller deliveries, by this making the progress transparent on all sides, allowing very early interface testing and agile reaction on necessary changes - We have used a mature and flexible product, developed over many years to serve as a standard to the metals industry This paper describes the key success factors, the lessons learned and the benefits for the customer. It also provides a guideline for future projects in the field of metals production.