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Broner to Provide Scheduling Solution for Tata Steel Scunthorpe Plant
07/13/2011 - Tata Steel Long Products has selected Broner Metals Solutions to implement an integrated scheduling solution for steelmaking and casting, slab yard and plate mill together with comprehensive MES facilities for tracking, quality and inventory management.
Tata Steel Long Products has selected Broner Metals Solutions to carry out a major business improvement project at its Scunthorpe plant in UK. Tata Steel selected Broner after the company completed a design study for the project.
As part of the Chronos Project, as the project is called, Broner will implement an integrated scheduling solution for steelmaking and casting, slab yard and plate mill together with comprehensive MES facilities for tracking, quality and inventory management. The new system, which will be implemented in close partnership with Tata Steel business, operational and IT specialists, will provide the following functions:
· Steel plant scheduling with real-time plant co-ordination, crane and ladle management and ‘what-if’ analysis capabilities, together with automated caster scheduling for five casters
· Integrated / through scheduling, to generate an automated piece-level schedule from the slab yard to plate rolling and finishing lines; with detailed line scheduling for the plate mill
· Auto allocation of skelp, slab, plate inventories and cutting plans for finished plates & slabs
· MES for slab yards and plate mill, comprising: production recording and management; quality conformance, recovery & tracking; inventory movements, tracking, & reporting
· Full integration with Tata Steel IBM mainframe, Level 2 process control systems and other operational and MES systems
The new integrated scheduling solution will provide more realistic schedules that will facilitate an increase in schedule adherence and will increase the visibility and control of plant material & processes. According to Broner, the system will help the Scunthorpe facility to reduce lead times and costs while increasing on-time delivery, production flexibility and agility, plant productivity and yield.
Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe plant is a complex facility comprising five continuous casters, complex routes, and a wide variety of steel grades and qualities. Broner’s Melt Shop Control Centre real-time scheduling solutions will help to improve the synchronization of operations while helping to improve reliability of casting, reduce energy cost and increase productivity.
Tata’s slab yard is also a complex facility comprising six slab processing facilities within a limited space. Broner’s MES solutions will help to provide real-time tracking of skelp and slab location, improve visibility of forward routing for each slab through the various treatments, and provide more reliable delivery of slabs to the plate mill.
The Broner MES will also be implemented in the Scunthorpe Plate Mill to provide real-time tracking of individual plates and integrated scheduling of all plate facilities to improve on-time delivery.
The MES solutions will feature wireless technology, hand-held terminals for shop floor and stock yard operators, and wireless terminals for all the crane cabs. The complete solution, which will be implemented in phases, will employ standard Broner modules with built-in steel functionality. Broner also will provide product enhancements to support the special requirements of this highly complex plant.
“Broner will provide the Scunthorpe plant with a mature business solution to match the best in the industry and allow us to become more competitive; through increased and more efficient production, greater flexibility, and impeccable customer service,” said Jan Steenberg, Supply Chain Director for Tata Steel Long Products UK.
Tata Steel is one of the world’s top ten steel producers. The combined Group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.
Tata Steel Long Products at Scunthorpe, an integrated steel plant, has an annual steelmaking capacity of 4.2 million tonnes producing bloom, skelp and billet. About half of this is rolled at the Scunthorpe medium section/rail mill, rod mill, primary mill and plate mill.
Broner Metals Solutions specializes in delivering, metals specific, MES, planning, scheduling & supply chain solutions to the Steel and Aluminium industries. The company provides packaged, configurable products that are designed to manage the complexities and variabilities of metals production.
The Broner Metals Solutions team has 30 years’ experience, and its solutions are used by some of the world’s top metals companies, including ArcelorMittal, Gerdau Group, JFE, Nippon Steel, Norandal Severstal, Tata Steel, TMK, ThyssenKrupp Steel, and Usiminas.
Broner Metals Solutions is part of Hyperion Systems Engineering Ltd.
