The customer has consistently been one of the key industry leaders in the production of Bauxite, Alumina, and Aluminium products across various international markets. However, because of changing dynamics in the market and the overall complexity of the industry and plant, the customer had been facing certain issues with their production processes and customer service levels.
The Customer’s Problems Meet Our Solutions :
1) Scheduling
The Customer’s Problem :
With ever growing business and process complexities, the customer was facing several issues related to the overall scheduling of their production plant. And, some of these were vital processes that ensured the success of the plant in the short and long runs. However, one of the main problems faced by the customer was with real-time scheduling of liquid metals to ensure all processes worked in synchronization and on time.
The main problems faced by the customer were :
- Delays in completing their production processes – resulting in delayed orders.
- Increased idle-time of the equipment and machinery in the plant.
- Reduced economies of scale.
Additionally, the customer also faced issues with sub-optimal resource planning, miscalculations of materials within the charge mixes and major furnaces, increased turnaround time, and an all-around rigidity in bringing about positive changes.
Our Solution :
To fully regulate the optimal flow of materials from offline and online furnaces to casters, Rhythm 2.0 rigorously innovated and created a perfect yet flexible schedule plan for the particular industrial Plant. To achieve this, we used data from the plant’s weekly casting plans mentioned in ERP. Our schedule also considered all the major furnace states captured from the customer’s ERP. Then, based on the state and cycle of the plant and its processes, our schedule was able to bring the final output schedule to with optimal metal flow path.
2) Charge Mix Planner
The Customer’s Problem :
The customer was grappling with issues relating to optimizing the contents of their charge mix plans to get the best outputs in terms of cost and desired chemistry of the finished product. The key issues faced were wastage of resources, increased turnaround, and a higher cost of operations. Additionally, the customer also faced certain issues with ensuring optimal scrap mix inputs to consistently achieve production in their desired chemistry or chemical composition.
Our Solution :
Based on the availability of scrap inventory, required chemistry, and some other constraints – Rhythm 2.0 was able to plan the perfect charge mix combinations of the required RM scraps and liquid metal/pure molten materials to optimize the overall production and cost of the plant’s processes. We were also able to optimize the customer’s scarp mix inputs in a way that provided the desired chemistry in their output while reducing the overall costs. Furthermore, our plans also provided the plant with reduced downtime for its equipment and machinery.
3) Equipment Downtime
The Customer’s Problem :
Our customer had an impending issue with assigning appropriate downtime for various equipment’s in their plant. Because of this, their resources were sometimes overworked and overused to the point of cessation in the plant. And, without thoroughly revamping their equipment down times, the company would continue to face hurdles and head towards losses in output and revenue.
Our Solution :
To optimize downtime periods for various resources in the plant, we created plans to utilize the resources in a way that reduces the overall negative impact of downtime on the plant and its output. To achieve this, optimized the idle and usage periods of resources such as equipment / machinery, materials, and manpower. Additionally, our plans were put into place in such a way that they can easily and regularly be (re)configured by changing the master data in the Rhythm 2.0 platform at any given time.
The Positive Outcome :
Here’s how our technological solutions helped our customer improve their overall productivity and output:
- All-around optimization of material flows and scheduling plans.
- Improved turn-around time of the overall production process.
- Reduced costs-incurred and improve economies of scale.
- Better organization and planning of materials (molten and scrap) for the charge mixers.
- Reduced downtime and damages to the plant’s equipment and machinery
- Better optimization and synchronization of various processes involved in their production.
Implementing a solution based on our rhythm 2.0 platform resulted in –
- 98%+ Up time of the Caster.
- 10% Lower Input Scrap Cost.
- Working Capital Reduction in excess of 10%.
