Posted on 27 Nov 2023
Walking around one of China's oldest steel mills, you can hardly see any workers. Machines are the best friends of Zhang Minggang the production scheduling manager in the coating workshop.
ZHANG MINGGANG, Production Scheduling Manager, Coating Workshop, Ansteel Group, Liaoning Province "From delivering, loading to storage, pretty much everything was done manually before. Nowadays, the whole coating process is automated."
GUAN YANG, Anshan, Liaoning Province "As a pillar of society, steel-making can be very complex because all production steps are interdependent. This makes it challenging to adopt digitalization for efficient production management."
This year Ansteel rolled out a "digital manufacturing" plan prioritizing advanced technology and equipment, stable supply of resources, a higher level of automation and emissions reduction.
The group's digital transformation calls for an integrated solution – building a system that connects devices, machinery and people. Changes are seen not only in the production plants, but in areas like research and development as well.
YAN LING, Deputy Director of Offshore Steel Institute, Ansteel Group "It took us five years to establish a system that fits into every aspects of research and development. Under the new platform, metallurgical testing, material design, evaluation and standards setting are hooked together."
Away from the production plants, the group has also upgraded the corporate compliance program for its subsidiaries. The all-in-one system is designed to reduce the risk of legal action or regulatory penalties for subsidiaries that comply with legal and ethical standards.
ZHANG ZHENGLE, Deputy Director of Corporate Compliance Department, Ansteel Group "The new system upholds the principle of building one unified platform, sharing one database and adhering to the same standards. The evaluations given by the program now plays a crucial role in decision making."
China accounts for over half of the world's steel production, and to survive in the challenging market environment of the metals industry, experts suggested mega-trends such as digitalization and decarbonization must be made a priority. GUAN YANG, CGTN.
Source:CGTN
