FEATURE CAD/SOFTWARE
Refining steel production
As the second largest steel maker in Europe, operation at Tata Steel needs to continue 24/7. To help, the company is using AUVESY’s change management and version control software, versiondog
T
o ensure the production of steel is economically viable, manufacturing facilities need to use the latest equipment and technology – and at Tata
Steel the change management and version control software versiondog has become a proven means of combating downtime and increasing production costs. The software was first used by the company in 2011 at its Ijmuiden plant in the Netherlands. Tata Steel, which has manufacturing plants in 26 countries and
commercial operations in more than 35 countries, is the second largest steel maker in Europe. Not only do its production facilities employ cutting-edge technology in all areas, but extremely close attention is paid to life-cycle costs. Since 2005 Tata Steel had been using a version control product
called VersionWorks that was being distributed by the Dutch version control specialist, Agilitec. After support for VersionWorks was discontinued in 2010, Agilitec BV and AUVESY decided to enter into cooperation; and Agilitec has been the versiondog distributor for the Benelux countries ever since. Tata Steel is structured into decentralised business units that each have
their own product groups and production facilities – cold rolling plants, for example, or hot rolling plants. HTD (Hoogoven Technische Dienst – Eng: technical service), the internal
service provider for the maintenance departments of Tata Steel’s business units, quickly recognised the benefits of versiondog. The software has been made available on the central network to individual business units, which can choose to take advantage of versiondog on a subscription basis. In order to increase the maximum number of components, the versiondog system is currently set to be upgraded to a parallel server system.
AVOIDING DOWNTIME Last year, Tata Steel Europe produced ten million tons of steel and generated a turnover of €7.9 billion. Nearly all production processes at Ijmuiden are continual and need to be kept running 24/7, so avoiding downtime is a top priority. This is one of the reasons why versiondog is in use on all production lines
here. However, because Tata Steel business units have a high degree of autonomy, the way individual units use versiondog varies considerably. This is because different units are involved in different kinds of production. There are 18 units and around 200 users with access to versiondog. Hassan
El Haddad and René Blaauw, being two of the systemadministrators, are able to centrally monitor and manage some 3,000 versiondog components. The number of backups being made of device control programs is growing steadily. Depending on the needs in each particular production area, some are made daily, some weekly and some monthly. Around 150 backups of the more critical equipment are made every day. When new machinery is installed, backups are initially made more frequently. When it is confirmed
28 SEPTEMBER 2019 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
that everything is running smoothly and reliably, the interval can be extended. Fortunately, setting up and changing backup jobs in versiondog is a very straightforward process. Whereas in the past backups were being made for the sake of it, now the
teams know when a change has been made and when a backup is necessary. Some of the units back up their networked
devices automatically, while others do so manually because they have a lot of stand-alone machinery. One of the many advantages of the versiondog system is that it supports both automatic and manual backup routines equally well. Plus, there are units for which adhering to the ‘Management of Change Protocol’ and registering each and every change is extremely important.
Satisfying the various security requirements of different production
plants is another area in which this software offers a high degree of flexibility. HTD can easily grant and manage access rights centrally, according to the needs and wishes of each individual unit. An advantage of this is that if a unit is subsequently reorganised, the systemadministrator does not need to be called in to deal with access rights. A number of external contractors have also been granted access to the versiondog system so that they can check-in projects themselves. Not only can all changes made by contractors be easily viewed and approved, but if a change still doesn’t produce the desired
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