At the beginning of December, RHI Magnesita impressed the judging panel with Automated Process Optimization (APO), a revolutionary digital solution that predicts of the service life of refractory products through artificial intelligence. This significantly increases safety and optimizes production processes, resulting in fewer production losses.
“I am incredibly proud that RHI Magnesita has managed to reach the final round of this prestigious award. Congrats to our passionate digitalization team,” says Stefan Borgas, CEO RHI Magnesita. “Together with strong partners like Microsoft, we strive to further expand the industry’s technology leadership, in developing the best digital solutions for our customers.”
The announcement of the winners of the Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Awards will take place in February 2021.
“Extreme temperatures, process cycles, chemical composition: vast amounts of data are generated at every single production step of our customers. These data contains valuable information about how certain high-temperature processes run in their plants,” explains Gregor Lammer, Chief of product APO. This is where Automated Process Optimization (APO) comes in: The system receives all available data of the respective production process. Based on this information, empirical values and previous measurement results, APO uses artificial intelligence to make predictions about how refractories are going to perform, should be maintained, and when they should be renewed.
Conversely, the customer can also instruct the system when scheduled maintenance and inspection work should be carried out, for example to make optimum use of the time between production peaks. In this case, the parameters are specified and APO calculates how the processes must be adjusted to achieve these specifications. This ensures maximum safety and maximum resource efficiency.
From accelerating digital initiatives, improving business processes and optimizing the customer experience to enhancing collaboration and the operation of assets, RHI Magnesita is pursuing a strategy to integrate digital technologies from all areas of their business to leverage the tremendous power of digital technologies. APO is a part of RHI Magnesita’s comprehensive business strategy.
“Our digitalization journey is helping us achieve our strategic targets. By embracing digital technologies, our business model will greatly enhance, and our competitiveness improves. We took the right decisions and are experiencing the progress we are making with products like APO. The digital transformation not only will have huge benefits but will influence our strategic deliverables significantly”, says Alexander Schillinger, program owner of the Beyond program for the digitalization of RHI Magnesita.
RHI Magnesita is the leading global supplier of high-grade refractory products, systems and solutions which are critical for high-temperature processes exceeding 1,200°C in a wide range of industries, including steel, cement, non-ferrous metals and glass. With a vertically integrated value chain, from raw materials to refractory products and full performance-based solutions, RHI Magnesita serves customers around the world, with around 13,000 employees in 35 main production sites and more than 70 sales offices. RHI Magnesita intends to leverage its leadership in terms of revenue, scale, product portfolio and diversified geographic presence to target strategically those countries and regions benefitting from more dynamic economic growth prospects.
Its shares have a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: RHIM) and are a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. For more information please visit: www.rhimagnesita.com.