The new app includes three modular applications: a planning application to assist with the creation of production schedules by using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to predict customers' future orders; a pre-grouping application that brings the requirements of each production line together to form groups created in line with common product features; and a line sequencing application that takes the order book, groups the customer orders into heats and calculates an optimal sequence of a selected subset of the heats for the caster for the next 24 hours.

The modules are aimed at improving traditional performance indicators and minimizing transitional losses. By integrating new and existing applications, the whole planning process is further enhanced and automated with AI. The modular design makes this possible, and in the future additional applications can easily be connected.

The new AI-as-a-Service modules are fully integrated with MES 4.0, SMS digital's manufacturing execution system.

“Our mission of reducing waste is coming to fruition as these solutions, trained on our supercomputing platform, are able to evaluate trade-offs across a span of dynamic operational and business constraints that exceed the limits of rules-based software and human judgement alone,” explains Chris Heuschkel, senior vice president and general manager of Noodle.ai’s manufacturing business unit.

"It is only with these kinds of developments, which SMS group as a systems supplier designs and builds with its partners, that our customers are able to produce ultramodern materials in a cost-effective, environmentally optimized way," says Bernhard Steenken, chief executive of SMS digital.

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