STEEL GRIPS online - ThyssenKrupp Bochum mill modernizes planning software

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ThyssenKrupp Bochum mill modernizes planning software

Sep 25, 2008

ThyssenKrupp Steel AG selected Quintiq to optimize capacity utilization at its steel mills in the Ruhr Area by introducing a centralized steel-ordering process. The company, turned towards Quintiq to support their planning processes, and improve throughput at its mill in Bochum.

Over the last few years, the Bochum plant has seen an increase in the level of interaction between its planning tools for aggregate programming and plant-wide materials flow management. Quintiq´s task is to increase the flexibility of these tools, transfer them to state-of-the-art technology platforms and integrate them into the new system architecture that is currently being built.

ThyssenKrupp´s management decided to carry out an initial pilot project together with the Quintiq experts to figure out whether a technical solution for the existing requirements was feasible and, if so, the additional innovations Quintiq could deliver. The results were satisfactory - the implementation of the Quintiq software suite began in September 2008. The system is expected to go live in the second quarter of 2009.

ThyssenKrupp Steel produces about 4 million metric tons of high-grade and stainless hot-rolled steel at its Bochum mill each year. A major proportion of it is reprocessed on site to cold-rolled thin-gauge sheet steel as well as electrolytic and hot-dip galvanized cold strip. The plant is an integral component of the ThyssenKrupp Steel production network. The planned Quintiq solution will feature broad functionality including inventory and scenario analyses, and campaign planning as well as sequencing for the electrolytic coating line (ECL), the hot-dip coating line (HDCL) and the temper mill. Closely integrated with the higher-level planning tool and an intelligent capacity and KPI overview, the Quintiq solution will provide full interaction support within the ThyssenKrupp Steel locations. The Quintiq tool generates campaigns and programs based on flexible data analysis to create and evaluate 'what-if' scenarios which can be accounted for in the final planning process.

"During the pilot project, Quintiq was able to demonstrate the great versatility of its solution which is ideal for dealing with our complex requirements. Its ability and potential to support the balancing of general capacity-utilization along with planning and sequencing based on detailed scheduling controls, was particularly impressive," explains Martin Palubitzki, head of bottleneck management at ThyssenKrupp Steel AG. "The Quintiq software is even able to derive up-to-date inventory data and essential KPIs in real time from the schedule. This means that inventory excesses or shortfalls as well as improvements or deteriorations in delivery performance can be recognized immediately."

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