The paper presents the possibilities of using unit load AGVs for handling parts in a welding shop. One of the key success factors of this technology implementation is the full automation of handling operations in front of welding lines and workplaces. Pallets with parts usually have a rectangular floor plan. Due to the high passability of the isles, it is advisable to transport these pallets to the welding lines with a narrower dimension (in width). This is done today with the help of forklift or tugger trains. Before the welding lines, however, the pallets are oriented lengthwise. This results in the necessity of turning them, which is carried out using forklifts. The effective deployment of unit load AGVs requires the replacement of forklifts and tugger trains. In that case, however, it is necessary to find such a solution, during which the pallet will be rotated in front of the welding line fully automatically. The aim of the paper is to propose and evaluate such solutions. For this purpose, a case study of the ŠKODA AUTO a.s. welding shop and multi-criteria decision-making methods are used. A total of six technical solutions are evaluated. Each solution is analysed in detail and evaluated from the point of view of seven criteria.
POSCO has developed a strategic decision-making tool for supply chain management to optimize manufacturing costs while the lower CO2 emissions by improving selection and use of raw materials in an integrated steel mill. It was realized by establishing a common platform based on enterprise-wise integrated data collection and simulating virtual plants, which is based on mass and heat balances, and empirical correlations for plant operations. The simulation was performed to get total cost merit in an integrated iron and steel making process ranging from raw materials to continuous casting. Ultimately, to minimize the manufacturing costs under technological constraints and environmental regulations for plant operations, the state-of-the-art process digital twin techniques for cost optimization were applied. Based on the optimized mix of raw materials, the accuracy of the forecasted manufacturing cost was about 98%. The results were used to establish production plans for 3 and 6 months. The developed tool can be connected with the smart factory module in real time to control the detailed operation of a specific factory through two-way communications, where the quality control for each process determines the overall efficiency. Digital transformation in iron and Steelmaking will give an insight to enhance raw material planning as well as improve process performances, as a common platform for in-house communications.
The aim of the paper is to present educational model for increasing agility of metal industrial companies.Education and development of knowledge of agile principles is a key element and prerequisite for successful implementation of agile principles in project portfolio management. For that reason, an education model is presented in this paper and it reflects the results of a survey from 2022 of the knowledge and application of agile principles in metal industrial companies worldwide. The educational model was verified within expert verification method and the results are summarized in the final part of the paper.
Designing continuous casting process of advanced high strength steels(AHSS) requires precise simulation of fracture formation based on hot ductility of the slab in order to avoid surface defects. Reduction of area(RA) as an indicator of ductility was compared with cracking performances in the continuous caster of Pohang steel works. The RA curve of each steel grade was predicted from Gaussian fitting-based ANN model that learned cumulated measurement data of more than 3000 points. Uneven solid-shell index(USI) as another crack sensitivity of a steel grade was also introduced by calculating volumetric shrinkage of surface during initial solidification in solid fraction between 0.9 and 1.0 based on thermodynamic database. Each type of surface crack seemed to be influenced by different mechanisms, where longitudinal-face-crack increased with USI while transverse crack presented a relatively high correlation with predicted RA. However, it was difficult to assure that either USI or RA independently determined the frequency of certain cracking type with absolute values of Pearson’s correlation less than 0.6. Classification of cast slabs based on USI and RA informed that combined effect of initial solidification and ductility behavior in the strand bow determines crack frequency for diverse types of cracking such as corner crack, transverse crack, and longitudinal-face-crack.