The aim of the paper is to analyze and describe current state of knowledge and application of agile methods, tools and techniques in medium and large size foundries in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and USA (United States of America) regions. The research goal is to present which agile principles are known and used by foundries within the research sample. The goal of the paper is also to evaluate the difference between medium and large size foundries that are also presented in results and discussion part of the paper.
In recent years, global and domestic market demands for quality steel were on the increase. Combined with the strict legislation of the European Union and its ambitious plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, this created pressure in the metallurgical sector, necessitating innovation and optimization of its current processes. However, the sector is currently struggling with a stagnant demand, international trade restrictions, and a pandemic which, along with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, causes disruption in supply chains and affects downstream sectors. As of today, the steel industry is one of the three largest emitters and is therefore a good candidate for decarbonisation. Although the industry needs to adapt to these new circumstances, it can also use them as a chance to ensure its competitiveness in the market in the long run. Steel is one of the basic pillars of today's society and as one of the most important engineering and building materials it is present in many aspects of our lives. Nevertheless, the industry must first cope with the environmental and economic pressure to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide production. All the more so as the energy and economic crisis caused by the war between Ukraine and Russia puts great pressure on the steel industry in Europe. These geopolitical events are also generating unprecedented challenges for Europe’s society. As to the energy crisis, the concerns over security, affordability, and sustainability of energy sourcing have never been as acute as today, which highlights the vulnerability of Europe’s industry and economy as a whole.
The aim of the manufacturing company is not only to innovate the production process in order to reduce production costs on the one hand and increase production on the other, but also to increase the resulting quality of products, which, with an increasing level of quality of manufactured products, eliminates the costs associated with possible complaints, increases the competitiveness of the manufacturing company in the markets and brings higher demand for products due to higher quality. This innovation of improving the quality of products is very neglected in current trends, when great emphasis is placed on increasing productivity while reducing costs, and even brings with it the opposite effect, which is the above-mentioned costs of complaints and the associated outflow of customers. In order for innovations leading to reduced costs and increased productivity not to have an impact on quality, partial control mechanisms are implemented in the production process to detect scrap, or an output control is installed as the last step of the production process in order to find and discard the non-conforming product and not send it to the customer. The aim of the article is to analyze the innovative change of the selected production process.
Abstract: The Metallurgy includes the oldest branch of technology and science of the humanity. Connected to this, the evolution of the technical installation, thermal or mechanical, has followed a similar impressing path. The iron and steel metallurgy had a fast evolution during time. The technical processes are in continuous changing, depending on humanity demands. Therefore, a study of this magnitude, embraces many aspects, including the geographic area.
The present article limits only to some milestones regarding the evolution of the technologies and installations used for iron and steel manufacturing. There are presented some processing technologies of iron ore in Europe, and not only, starting with the proto-metallurgy, using the surface material, before the human communities learned to exploit the underground ore deposits. Also, the entire equipment was rudimentary, constructed by wood, burned clay or iron and had specific forms, seemingly a cavity. Later, humanity began to understand the iron ore importance, starting to use iron for many activities. Being such a big demand, there has been an evolution of the iron ore processing instruments that has reflected in materials, shape and techniques. The main objective was to ease people's work and to increase their productivity. The article has in view the primary extractive processes, but also processing methods as puddling, forging or casting. In the context of Central European and Middle East ferrous metallurgy the article presents some particularities and common aspects of each region.
References: [1] R.F. Tylcote: History of the Metallurgy, for the Institute of Materials, London, ISBN 1-902653-79-3; [2] D.Constantinescu, Adriana B. Cârlan, Mirela Sohaciu: A point of view about the Metallic Materials during the human evolution, METAL2017, May 2017, Brno, Czech Republic; [3] S.Moisa, Biblia şi Metalurgia, Editura Galaxia Gutenberg, 2011, ISBN 978-973-141-354-9; [4] G. Agrícola: De re metallica, New York, Dover Publications, 1950.
There are many external factors that affect each business. Among the most important are the labor market and inflation, and currently the country's foreign policy. Now all the above factors affect the production of Czech companies at the same time and mainly negatively. Metallurgical companies have been facing a shortage of skilled labor and rising labor costs for many years. Now their situation is complicated by the outflow of large foreign labor from Ukraine. The article deals with the primary and secondary impacts of current external influences on human resources management in the metallurgical industry of the Czech Republic and the possibilities of mitigating these impacts.
This work deals with the use of waste heat from metallurgical plants to produce electricity, using a Stirling engine. It also deals with the design and control of the Stirling engine. In this work we focus on optimizing the production of electricity in order to achieve the highest engine efficiency. The control is realized by a microcontroller and control elements.
The paper contains new knowledge about the expansion of technologies associated with Industry 4.0 and digitalization in selected companies including metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic and evaluates the intensity of business process innovation with a focus on internal processes implemented in companies. A probe was implemented which was purposefully focused on the analysis of statistical data on innovation activities in innovative companies including metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic in the period under study by. The processing of statistical data obtained by the CZSO by a survey made it possible to obtain more detailed overviews of the relative frequencies of enterprises that implemented individual types of process innovations in the period under study and that have introduced some of the elements or tools of Industry 4.0 and the digitalization. The importance of innovation for the continued existence and development of the company is recognized especially by large companies and companies under foreign control. Many of these companies are already applying technologies associated with Industry 4.0 and the digitalization and they are moving towards the creation of a digital enterprise. On the contrary, the implementation of innovation activities and the use of technologies associated with Industry 4.0 in small and medium-sized companies is low. The main obstacle is insufficient funding for new technologies and human resources.