Steel

CHALLENGES

Only the strongest manufacturers can survive and thrive in the steel industry, which is highly competitive and capital intensive.
With heavy production costs and extremely expensive assets, steel companies must continuously struggle to adjust and align their production capacity with market demand.

Facing the constant pressure to minimize costs and inventory and, simultaneously, maximize throughput and customer satisfaction, steel manufacturers must strive to gain a competitive edge by attaining greater supply chain visibility, efficiency, and agility.

However, for steel companies, forging a strong and supple supply chain is no easy task given:

• The degree of volatility in market conditions and global supply and demand patterns.
• The complexity of individual customer orders and discrete manufacturing processes.
• The frequency of production disruptions due to raw materials shortages, resource bottlenecks, and other factors.
• The tight delivery deadlines and extent of customization required by customers.

CAPABILITIES

To be able to satisfy customer demand while – at the same time – slashing inventory costs and boosting operational efficiency, many steel manufacturers are turning to advanced planning and scheduling (APS) solutions to achieve production optimization.

ICRON’s algorithm-based APS software platform has proved to be a powerful and valuable tool for many steel companies as it gives them the capability to:

• Generate optimal production plans that dramatically improve end-to-end supply chain operations, cost efficiency, and delivery performance.
• Streamline, synchronize, and optimize production processes, resulting in decreased manufacturing costs and increased throughput.
• Coordinate and integrate the planning and operations of numerous departments (including steel refinery stations, blast furnaces, converters, electric ovens, continuous flow shops, steel rolling, and final cutting) within each steel production facility.
• Optimize inventory investment and key asset utilization.
• Gain increased visibility and control over the entire supply chain network as well as real-time operations, and the flexibility to dynamically change production plans in response to changing conditions in the market or on the shop floor.

With ICRON’s APS solution, steel manufacturers can revolutionize and optimize their operations, and achieve strong and sustainable productivity and profitability.