New manufacturing execution system for the Belval steelplant

The new Manufacturing Execution System  (MES) of the Belval Steelplant has successfully gone live last June after an in-depth testing of the new system with the production operators.

The new MES system is based on the production and quality management solution from the company PSI Metals.

The system covers the production flow from scrap baskets loading to evacuation of the semis to the stock hall, passing through the production at the electrical furnace, the ladle furnace and the continuous caster. Main features are production scheduling, production and consumption tracking, product trackability, optimization models, set points for automation layer, quality, performance management and equipment management.

A series of extended functionalities will enable gains on production costs on top of savings that were already generated by legacy MES. Typically, the embedded treatment practices to steer and monitor the steel making process will improve consumptions, quality and overall yield. Reinforced equipment management, processes trackability, real time trend graphs of process variables, check lists … will contribute to optimize process efficiency.

The project to migrate from homemade software to a market standard for such a scope in liquid phase is a first in Europe Long Products.

To replace a tailored system that has evolved through the complexities of our activity during the last 20 years by a market product proposing its own standards is a true challenge. The change that it represents in terms of project realization and software adoption is huge. Production engineers and operators, IT engineers and our partner PSI have overcome this, collaborating closely to deliver the value expected from this new software delivery model.

Belval steelplant is now equipped with a system that paves the way for Industry 4.0, and that will benefit on continuous basis from all software extensions and improvements from PSI Metals, a leader in MES for steel manufacturers.

Our production engineers focus internally on process optimization and related change management. The IT Team aims to creating a Center of Excellence around this new system which implementation and evolution depend on proximity services for users. Training plan will be pursued to complement that knowledge with the target to become autonomous from vendor for evolutive maintenance.