PSI awarded follow-up contract from ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel in France

PSI has been awarded by ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel with implementing the production management system PSImetals for the rolling mill and thermal treatment in the electric strip cold rolling mill in Isbergues, France.

The goals of ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel are harmonised processes and reduced expenditures in the IT administration by means of a standardised shop-floor system in all the plants. This order was preceded by the proven use of PSI systems at the Gelsenkirchen site and the successful implementation of PSImetals in slitting and packaging in Isbergues. In the future PSImetals will be controlling the production at both European plants and securing the quality across all the processing steps.

The solution is based on the PSImetals components for Production Execution (PES) and Advanced Line Sequencing (ALS). The specific plant programs will be generated and implemented for all the system types in the rolling mill and the tempering. The cross-plant tracking of the production orders, including the production data acquisition and implementation of the quality standards, is handled at the level of the specific plant segment by means of a task-optimised menu. ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel expects benefits especially in retroactive quality analyses. Every modification and defect, including precise information about where the position of the defect was in which stage of treatment, is shown in a graphical material genealogy for every piece of electrical steel. This quality information forms the basis for the future improvements in the production process.

PSI has now shown us at Isbergues that my colleagues long years of positive experience with PSI at the Gelsenkirchen site were justified. The old system was successfully replaced and the ramp-up occurred without incidents. The first strips were cut and packed just a few hours after the conversion of the system. The process was tracked completely by means of PSImetals. We are looking forward to phase 2, i.e. the introduction of the rolling mill and the tempering with great confidence, reports Guy Ligi, Head of Order Center & Finishing Operation at ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel in Isbergues.

The connection to SAP and to the various sub-systems is handled by PSIintegration. The commencement of operations for the rolling mill and thermal treatment is planned for the first half of 2010.

ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel is a producer of grain-oriented electrical steel, headquartered in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and with additional production plants in Isbergues, France and Nashik, India. Grain-oriented electrical steel is, as a result of its magnetic properties, able to distribute or convert electrical energy with an efficiency of more than 99% and therefore is the core material in the production of energy-efficient transformers and large, high-performance generators.

PSI AG develops and integrates complete solutions, on the basis of its own software products, for the management of energy networks (electricity, gas, oil, heat, water), cross-company production management (metals, automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, logistics) and infrastructure management for telecommunications, transport and safety. PSI was founded in 1969 and employs 1,400 persons in the group. www.psi.de