Abstract
The growth of the steel sector requires a fully integrated manufacturing system for real-time decision making. The primary challenge in the steel sector is the lack of data flow between the production operations such as Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and business systems as an example the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The production operations of the steel sector require visibility of product quality, maintenance management, operational lead times, planning and scheduling, equipment health, to name but a few aspects. Legacy systems and technologies that are in the steel sector have plagued the organisation. State of the art technology implementations is defined as “brownfields” as they are deployed in silos with no standardisation across the organisation. Production data in the steel sector constitutes disparate sources as there is a multitude of processes and applications. Real-time data is collected and aggregated before being shared with other systems. The paper investigates current technologies and investments adopted by the steel sector and how to leverage off these existing expenditure to attain a smart enterprise and subsequently manage current and future steel demands efficiently. The paper defines an implementation approach and system architecture to assist the steel sector aligned to Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 simplifies the approach to implement complex systems in a structured and logical manner in manufacturing organisations. Industry 4.0 integrates the operational equipment, people, processes, products and the supply chain. The study deliberates the Industry 4.0 framework and the approach to implement Industry 4.0 in the steel sector. The focus areas of the research include the review of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Big Data at the steel entity. The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology is utilised in the research to gather information on the steel entity. A steel entity in South Africa is utilised in the research. Workshops and observations are employed at the steel entity to gather data and identify business processes utilised. The results based on data collated prove the viability of industry 4.0 in the steel sector. The alignment of the current system architecture of the steel entity to Industry 4.0 framework results in a reduction of thirty-four per cent in system applications utilised in the organisation which is presented in an Industry 4.0 architecture. Further benefits are defined in terms of reduction of integration interfaces, improved real-time data flow, financial savings based on a single data and reporting repository and reduction in month-end financial reporting timelines.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)