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Dave Stickler
President and CEO, Big River Steel
Supernova Award Category:
Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Humanity
The Company:
Big River Steel takes a visionary, entrepreneurial approach to the ever-changing American manufacturing industry. We’re reimagining what it means to be a steel company in the global marketplace.
To keep pace with evolving and emerging industries, BRS attracts and trains the best steel technicians in the business. We’ve equipped them with the most advanced technology to make the steels customers need today and a decade from now – all while creating minimal impact on the environment. From the Flex Mill™ equipment, to AI technology, to partnerships with academic research institutes, Big River Steel is daring to be more than what you’d expect from a steel company.
“At our core we’re a technology company. We just happen to make steel.”
The Problem:
Big River Steel’s objective is to develop the world’s first ‘Learning Mill’ that continually improves its performance (yield, throughput, energy efficiency, etc.) and profitability (profit/hour).
More specifically they need to: improve yield to ensure that output matches specification targets; maximize throughput/ utilization and delivery date reliability, predict and minimize instances of adverse mill-events such as cracks, cobbles, etc.; reduce total energy usage as well as overall 'demand' (peak energy usage); and manage the cost of raw materials and related volatility risks.
The Solution:
Big River Steel engaged Noodle.ai to deploy a number of AI-as-a-Service applications:
- an energy usage prediction application based on per day and per unit historical energy consumption;
- a composite raw materials index linked to tradable commodities to enable hedging and manage volatility risks;
- an on-time production prediction application to enable effective customer order management, production scheduling, and transportation planning
- rapid mill-event forensics applications to identify adverse mill-events and related root causes;
- optimization of production parameters to minimize deviation over customers' specifications;
The Results:
We increased day-ahead participation in the energy marketplace to increase "energy-sale" revenue by 1.5-2.5x; net step is to enable participation in real-time marketplace (in addition to day-ahead participation) which will increase the revenue amount by 3x-5x (total); this is enabled through energy-usage prediction app.
We reduced volatility risk for raw material from 23% to 6% through use of raw materials index app that enables hedging related decisions.
We reduced instances of delayed shipments (and therefore higher transportation rates) from ~35% down to ~10% (savings confidential) through on-time production prediction app.
Profit improvements are confidential; and other improvement are in progress.
Metrics:
We increased day-ahead participation in the energy marketplace to increase "energy-sale" revenue by 1.5-2.5x; next step is to enable participation in real-time marketplace (in addition to day-ahead participation) which will increase the revenue amount by 3x-5x (total); this is enabled through energy-usage prediction app.
We reduced volatility risk for raw material from 23% to 6% through use of raw materials index app that enables hedging related decisions.
We reduced instances of delayed shipments (and therefore higher transportation rates) from ~35% down to ~10% (savings confidential) through on-time production prediction app.
Profit improvements are confidential; and other improvement are in progress.
The Technology:
Noodle.ai, the brain inside your business, unearths hidden patterns in your internal and external data so you can attain operational superiority. With interconnected applications from Demand Shaping to Supply Execution, Noodle.ai leverages massive data sets to analyze trillions of potential actions, and predict outcomes.
Disruptive Factor:
A cornerstone of American identity, the steel industry is steeped in tradition. Couple that with capital-intensive equipment and you've got a recipe for slow uptake of technological changes.
"At some operations you’ll hear: 'That's the way we've always done it.' At Big River Steel, that's the wrong answer," shares David Stickler. "We are looking forward to challenging industry norms by mining the treasure trove of data that Big River Steel is uniquely positioned to collect and analyze," he said. "The use of artificial intelligence tools will allow us to identify mathematical correlations that will allow us to drive costs out of the production process while at the same time enhancing the quality of the steel that we produce."
Stickler likens his smart mill to a driverless car that, on Day 1, doesn't know how to drive itself but over time learns more and more.
Shining Moment:
Dave Stickler was invited to join the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to attend the "Artificial Intelligence for American Industry" summit. "Sitting at the table alongside Boeing, Facebook, Ford, Pfizer, Walmart and other companies that are leading the way in terms of fully embracing industry 4.0 was an honor. I was extremely proud to present how we drive machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence throughout our company."
