The steel industries have a fundamental role not only in our society but also in the industrial sector itself. These industries are responsible for producing the most used material in the sector, and also around the world.
The importance of this industry is fundamental for the functioning and good organization of our daily life. However, the steel production process is carried out in such a way that its environmental impacts are contrary agents to the important need for decarbonization of the industry.
Steel, before being steel, is an ore. The process of transforming this ore takes place by heating this material in boilers under very high pressures and temperatures. And as in any combustion process, burning is responsible for the generation of toxic residues, which, when released into the atmosphere, contaminate the air.
Considering the great importance of the operation of this industry, its difficulties, and challenges, it is necessary for this sector to find ways to adapt and evolve towards a more sustainable, optimized, integrated, and agile operating model.
For this to be done, this industry needs to adopt technologies in its processes so that they understand what its difficulties are and, based on that, it can change to a more efficient model.
The big issue involving this sector is its energy sources
In some of our published texts, we demonstrated the need for industries to adapt to the difficult task of changing their energy sources to renewable sources. In line with the ESG goals, industries become attractive to receive investments and, consequently, maintain their operation in the long term.
Access and understand how industries are adapting to the energy transition
Much is said about the disruptive role of Industry 4.0 in these transitional processes. It is true that technology has helped human beings to overcome barriers and overcome their challenges since the first industrial revolutions.
But industry 4.0 has digitization as its strongest banner, and not even the oldest could imagine the magnitude of the changes worldwide through digitization.
It is true that from the last decade onwards, digitization has been boosted, generating a lot of data about everything imaginable, including industrial operations.
Now, you can notice a slightly different movement. We already have or have collected the necessary data, it is possible to say, we even have too much data.
The movement that is starting to take place now is a kind of filter. It is necessary to understand which of these data are relevant, and which are not, and especially how to use them, and how to transform them into optimization outputs.
Here is one of the crucial points for the steel industry, given its great challenges regarding the environment, integration of a complex process, agility in decision-making, and also the safety of its operators and assets.
It is necessary to use Digital Transformation intelligently, and that is where the concept of contextualization arises.
Data contextualization is the treatment of this data, crossing it with other information so that the management is able to understand what happens in the plant. Not only has information diffused in countless systems that no one can access, but also have the right data at hand, with easy access, and the certainty that there is the information necessary for decision-making that will change the industry’s history.
It is necessary to innovate and revolutionize. We have reached a period in which innovation becomes a requirement for survival, not only in an increasingly pressured market but survival for humans residing in an environment that is already very much attacked.
Digital transformation is the starting point and much needed on a long journey towards sustainability, security, and smart use of resources,
To start this journey, the first step is to find the right solution to contextualize data. With know-how and cases of data contextualization in various sectors, Vidya Technology is a pioneer in this field.
Get in touch with us to get deeper into the topic and discover the multiple ways this process can optimize your operation.
About the Author: Andre Andrade
