Business processes without boundaries

Connected value chain

At one of our hot strip mills we have implemented an Industry 4.0 solution that goes way beyond the boundaries of an individual company. The processes of the supplier, the hot strip mill as the manufacturer, and the customers are connected in a digital network. Hot-rolled strip starts out life as a steel slab. Slab production at Hüttenwerke Krupp-Mannesmann is controlled by the hot strip mill around 80 kilometers away. That means we can respond quickly to our customers’ deadline requirements even with the starting material.

Conversely, customers can exert “just in time” influence on hot strip production at the mill. They can enter their orders directly in the mill’s IT system and determine themselves when their order will be processed.

What’s more, customers are able to make changes to specifications such as width and thickness until just before production starts. Greater flexibility is difficult to imagine.

In addition to flexibility for all concerned, process chains across company boundaries have other advantages: for example, they save space and costs for the storage of starting materials and products, freeing up the capital this would otherwise have tied up for more productive purposes.