MMK Implements Digitalisation Programme In Partnership With Deloitte CIS

Deloitte CIS has completed an assessment of Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK)'s digital maturity, a Metal-Expo regular exhibitor and transformation potential as part of MMK's digitalisation strategy. The joint team applied Deloitte's global experience to analyse MMK's current digital initiatives and future potential.

As part of MMK's Industry 4.0 initiative, the steelmaker is currently implementing more than 20 projects, dozens of which have been completed.Digital solutions, claims the company, are being implemented at every stage of production.

For example, when purchasing coal concentrate, an optimisation model is used to assess the quality and volume of supply, which takes into account economic, logistical and other parameters. In production, Optimal Iron, an automated information system, is being created to determine the requirements for the quality of coke and sinter, the structure of iron ore raw materials and the parameters of hot air blast.

At the sales stage, an optimiser is used to load shipments in ports, this is synchronised with the formation of calendar production plans and also the development of the demand forecasting model for finished goods.

Power engineers use the digital twin turbine to select the optimal operating parameters and continue to improve the energy management platform, allowing it to personalise the contribution of employees to energy savings.

To improve the efficiency of maintenance and repairs of equipment, an intelligent project life cycle system was launched to simulate and plan control, monitoring and management of the equipment’s life cycle.

All divisions of MMK are actively involved in the study and implementation of digital solutions and the result is more than 250 initiatives in 20 functional areas that will improve the effectiveness of MMK's strategy.

According to Alexander Oleynik, director of strategy and operations at Deloitte's consulting department, MMK is committed to improving the efficiency of its core business. "Among the selected initiatives is the dominance of solutions that digitalise labour and asset management. At the same time, the potential for transformation is acknowledged and valued by all supporting units. This indicates a readiness for balanced development and use of cross-functional digital solutions." 

Andrey Eremin, MMK's director of economics, commented, "The use of modern technologies at MMK is already an established practice. An extensive list of digital initiatives was formed in almost equal parts from what was previously discussed at MMK, and from what Deloitte proposed in terms of new products from their cross-industry global digitalisation experience. It contains solutions of varying complexity – from a digital twin blast furnace to advanced analytics on predictive models. In the future, we will carefully monitor the accessibility and efficiency of these initiatives, as well as identify the ones of the highest priority and determine the order of their implementation accordingly within the framework of MMK's digitalisation strategy."