Introduction

An integrated steel plant is huge by any measurement. Capacity is generally more than 1 million tonnes per annum and in many big plants, it is more than 10 million tonnes per annum. The raw materials that are consumed are also in huge quantities, be it coal (coking coal or non-coking coal depending on technology used for iron making), iron ore, lime stone, dolomite or any other raw material. Properties of these raw materials vary greatly. Despite the mixing and refinement done at the mines before shipping to a steel plant, these are natural raw materials and variations in properties are still present when it reaches the plant. Other problem is that due to large requirement of raw materials, sourcing comes from many sources and raw material properties from these places will vary greatly. For example, iron ore found in one geographical area will have greatly different properties than iron ore found in some other geographical area.

Properties of incoming raw materials greatly influence the properties of intermediate and finished products as well as the process parameters at each stage of production. As a result, properties of raw materials and products as well as process parameters are to be measured and managed at every stage of production. At the same time, the evolution of a finished product from its raw material and the many intermediate products along the way is like a journey with many stops.

Any manufacturing software that is useful to an integrated steel plant should be able to meet these fundamental requirements. This aspect of stops along the journey as well as the journey itself can be captured and described only if the software vendor has detailed knowledge of the processes involved in an integrated steel plant.