Operationalising the world’s largest pipe conveyor system

At JSW Steel, we are on the constant lookout to minimise our overall cost of production. A large portion of our expenditure is attributed to the landed cost of raw materials, of which logistics accounts for a significant part.

To minimise the overall cost of iron ore logistics to our largest manufacturing unit, JSW Vijayanagar Works, we undertook the building of the world’s largest pipe conveyor, traversing ~24 km from our captive mines to our plant.

The pipe conveyor system, fully operationalised in early FY 2019-20, reduces our overall carbon footprint (by 3.86 kg/tonne of CO₂) and dust emissions, while improving safety by eliminating road movement between the source and destination. It also trims down our logistics cost by ~85% compared to other modes of in-land transport. During FY 2019-20, ~3.39 MnT of iron ore was dispatched through the pipe conveyor.

Digitalisation to stay ahead of the curve

We recommend our digitalisation journey, ‘Athena’, in 2017 with the objective of institutionalising a comprehensive digital ecosystem. We have adopted a calibrated and wave-wise approach to digitalisation.

Our Digital Vision

DELIVER WOW BY DIGITALLY TRANSFORMING AND NURTURING OUR ECOSYSTEM, THEREBY CREATING SUSTAINABLE VALUE

Our digital strategy focuses on bolstering sales, enhancing throughput, reducing defects, increasing availability of assets and improving safety. It also encompasses our adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), computer vision, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and big data analytics, among others. These technologies have been deployed across our integrated steel plants, specialised downstream plants and centralised functions.

OUR DIGITAL STRATEGY AIMS TO ADDRESS FOUR KEY THEMES CRITICAL TO AND ALIGNED WITH OVERALL STAKEHOLDER VALUE MAXIMISATION

KEY OPERATIONAL AREAS AND DIGITAL INTERVENTIONS

Manufacturing

• Reducing downtime in blast furnaces
• Driving optimised production planning based on raw material availability
• Increasing coke oven productivity
• Advanced analytics-based caster operations

Expansion project management

Establishing single sources of truth using Large Project Management (LPM) tools and flagging risks early

Procurement

Improving vendor satisfaction by moving our sourcing and contract management to best-in-class platforms

Logistics

Creating value by using data-driven measures to reduce transit losses, optimise asset utilisation and debottleneck dispatch

Considerable savings with digital initiatives

During FY 2019-20, we launched over 200 projects on digital themes across manufacturing, sales and procurement (including critical raw materials such as iron ore and coal). Together, they contributed to an overall savings of ` 450 crore, more than double the previous year’s, owing to a larger scope and reach of interventions.

KEY BENEFITS REALISED FROM DIGITALISATION

Plant operations

• ML, IoT and advanced analytics are helping drive up coke oven productivity
• ML-based charge mix optimisation models have been deployed at both Vijayanagar Works and Dolvi Works to maximise liquid metal output at reduced cost
• Data-driven auction strategy is helping drive targeted bidding of bulk raw material
• Data-driven improvements to reduce value loss emanating from handling and breakage of prime input raw materials and improved digitalisation of maintenance practices are helping reduce downtime at mills and blast furnaces across various plants

Safety and security

• Online monitoring of parameters in coated plants and coke ovens enable reduced manual interventions
• AI-enabled insights from computer vision are helping drive high compliance to best-in-class safety practices, reducing perimeter breaches and unsafe assembly in process areas with pilots ongoing at Salem Works

Procurement and vendor management

Digital interventions are enabling us to craft closer relationships with our vendors by bringing them onboard the latest procurement and sourcing platforms, combined with Robotic Process Automation (RPA), to drive faster turnaround in the purchase process. Marked improvement in contract management, supplier performance management and cataloguing are the key benefits arising from these initiatives.

Project management

We are actively using digital to optimise capital projects build-out, especially in the context of expansion projects.

• Best-in-class LPM methodologies were used in the Dolvi Works expansion project, which have helped create a single ‘source of truth’ across various execution teams, flag risks early with a variety of simulations and helped strengthen project management capabilities internally
• These LPM methodologies are now being proactively extended to Vijayanagar Works as well, in line with previously announced plans of expanding the facility post completion of Dolvi expansion and integration of acquired entities in India

Creating a digital-first organisation

Our efforts at mass dissemination of latest industry trends, hands-on training sessions (including classroom and on-demand online) and the Steel Academy have enlightened 8,000+ Digital-first JSWites, led by 250+ Digital Enablers.