BUSINESS AND RESEARCH
FACTORY 4.0: DIGITAL IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY Following machine-tools and robots, it is now time for digital technology to take its place on the factory floor. AI, augmented reality, Internet of Things (IoT)... Technology is pushing back the limits, from design to production and sales. Do we need to turn the way we work upside down? The answer comes from Dunkirk, where the steelmaker ArcelorMittal has begun to considerably transform its main European site. 450 hectares, 3,700 employees*: every year, six to seven million tonnes of steel slabs leave the ArcelorMittal plant in Dunkirk to serve the group’s other plants, but above all to supply the production sites of players in the automotive, industrial and packaging sectors. A historic and emblematic site that is gradually entering a new era, explains David Glijer, Director of Digital Transformation at ArcelorMittal France. «Our ambition is to become the leader of 4.0 steelmaking in France and Europe, hence the launch in 2019 of a major plan divided into three main branches, dedicated respectively to our customers, our business and our employees. Our goals? Improving operational performance by integrating new technologies at every level of the company. «The challenge is to move from computerisation to digitalisation:
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N°06 I A new way of talking business
augmented reality, big data, IoT... This transformation should enable us to achieve results in terms of reliability, quality and environmental performance, but also to reduce our costs and improve our competitiveness, and therefore our commercial performance. It is also a way of aligning ourselves with our competitors, particularly those in China.
WHEN AI COMES INTO PLAY
The initiative may come as a surprise: the steel industry is not the first sector that one would instinctively associate with digital technologies. Wrongly, explains David Glijer: «We are still industrialists, but we have to deal with an enormous amount of information 24 hours a day: each line may have up to 200 sensors collecting an incredible amount of data every second. AI then comes into play, for example processing in real time the data
WITH 154
ROBOTS PER 10,000 EMPLOYEES, FRANCE’S INDUSTRIAL BASE IS ONLY HALF AS AUTOMATED AS GERMANY’S AND FIVE TIMES LESS THAN THOSE OF KOREA OR SINGAPORE
(SOURCE : INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ROBOTICS).
10 %
OF FRENCH COMPANIES HAVE NOW INCORPORATED AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE APPLICATION, HALF LESS THAN IN THE UNITED STATES.
