12.2% of volume hot charged, without getting ahead of due dates

12.2%

of volume hot charged in a real 15-day scenario, even as the last priority in the plan

Less gas

in reheating on almost every production day of the scenario, with hot or warm charging

≈ 5 min

to generate the monthly steel shop schedule in a real scenario

D+1 to M+1

plan horizon, with real-time updates

Sending the billet still hot to the reheating furnace reduces gas consumption, emissions, and intermediate stock. In practice, not every billet can arrive hot:

• Only one suitable line. Only one of the rolling mills accepts hot billets, and only in one of the billet sizes.
• A narrow window. A billet counts as hot charged if it is reheated within 24 hours after casting. The due date pulls casting earlier; heat pulls it closer to rolling.
• Different paces. The steel shop produces faster than rolling, and the gap between casting and rolling grows.
• Other priorities. Due dates, stops, and grade-change losses come before heat.

Until then, this balance between energy and demand depended on manual heuristics.

With Enacom’s Planning Digital Twin, the hot billet became an explicit objective of the plan, from the next day through the next month:

1. Defines billet-size campaigns

   through mathematical optimization, concentrating the size of the suitable line on the days when it has demand.

2. Sequences heats in order of priority

   first due dates, then stops, grade-change losses and, last, hot charging. Heat is used whenever it does not compromise what comes before.

3. Simulates and alerts.

   The plan comes with forecast indicators day by day, such as hot charging, rolling mill utilization, and yard occupancy, and with alerts for idle capacity, unmet demand, and late delivery.

The plan updates with changes in demand and operations, and the planner compares scenarios before deciding.

In a real 15-day scenario, the plan sent 12.2% of the volume to hot charging. The result came even with heat as the last of four priorities and with a single line able to receive it.

In the final days of the scenario, rolling demand dropped and hot charging became unfeasible, because the billet cooled before being rolled. That is why the potential tends to be higher in periods of higher demand. Adding hot and warm charging together, almost every production day in the scenario used less gas in reheating.

The full monthly plan, with campaigns, sequences, and indicators, is ready in about 5 minutes, which makes it possible to redo scenarios whenever demand changes.

• Energy and emissions in the plan. Hot billets no longer depend on opportunity and enter as a planning objective.
• Due dates still come first. Heat is used only when it does not compromise due dates, stops, and quality.
• Problems before execution. Idle capacity, unmet demand, and delays show up as alerts in the plan.
• Quick decisions with the team, comparing scenarios in minutes, in a solution that coexists with the ERP, MES, and APS already in use.

• Your electric steel shop supplies rolling mills with different hot-charging capabilities.
• Reheating furnace gas weighs on cost and emission targets.
• Billet-size campaigns and grade-mixing rules are still decided by hand or in a spreadsheet.

We start from your data: we customize the twin, validate the result in scenarios and a pilot, and only then scale. The results in this case reflect the conditions of that mill.