Tarun Mathur (TM): Industry 4.0 is making an impact across many industries, including metals, through aspects of operational excellence, process performance, asset performance, sustainability and connected worker, all underpinned by cyber security. Looking at a customer’s digitalisation journey, big data and AI have become more significant if you look at the maturity of the metals market today. Even five years ago, only 10-20% of the industry was connected. Most producers had some automated systems, but they were working in silos.
Since then, there has been a transition where these islands of automation have been broken down, pieced together or replaced to create either an edge or a cloud where all the data can be stored, accessed and shared, enabling gains in productivity, quality and yield. It means that an industry traditionally known as conservative has taken a big and important first step. We have now seen, in the last two years, more AI applications relevant to the industry.
It is still a new area, but the potential is immense. We have more and more unrestricted or available data from across customer sites and the wider industry. Large organisations like ABB can also help to leverage big data from across the many industries we serve, adopting from others and working together. For any organisation, greater certainty of future conditions is valuable and AI can improve that forecasting.
TM: It’s well known that workers are reaching retirement age and working beyond because companies cannot lose their experienced, knowledgeable people. This is unsustainable and the use of AI and automation can help retain information for the next generations. ABB is exploring the implementation of an app for connected workforces. AI as an assistant can go some way to addressing metals industry challenges.
TM: ABB is investing in AI applications across many industries. For us, in the metals industry, workforce is one area with tremendous potential to grow. We have built AI packages starting from the upstream stock yards, through pellet plants, into the steel melt shop, and then the downstream rolling mills. The applications will improve the operations or improve the asset reliability or the overall performance of the plants.
At the recent ESTAD conference, which took place in conjunction with the METEC fair, ABB presented on the topic ‘The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Digital Transformation of the Steel Industry’. We outlined some of the tangible ways AI applications can optimise energy purchase and production including at site power plants and turbines. It can lead to more efficient energy use and improved electricity procurement forecasts, with difference of 10-15% compared to alternative solutions. Data and optimisation modelling and rule-based energy management algorithms can lead to optimised energy consumption and energy security in operations.