Villares Metals: Infrastructure Solutions, Control Loop Optimization

Overview

Villares Metals is the largest non-flat high alloy special steel producer in Latin America and market leader in all core segments.

Their product line comprises of high-speed steels, tool steels, stainless steels, valve steels, special alloys and forged parts. In 2007, the sales volume amounted to 87.8 thousand tons of finished products, out of which 52,800 tons were for the internal market and 35,000 for export. The company employs approximately 1,500 people at its two industrial plants.

Accenture collaborated closely with Villares Metals to implement a control loop optimization and audit project for its thermo treatment, forgery and rolling mill unit operations.

Business Challenge

Villares Metals searched continuously, for cutting-edge solutions to improve its products. This consulting project was motivated by aiming at cost reduction, process variability reduction, final product quality improvement and equipment—where reduction provides more stable and safe operational conditions.

How We Helped

From June to December 2008, Accenture performed a control loop optimization and audit project for Villares Metals for several of its unit operations—thermo treatment, forgery and rolling mill—with the help of a dedicated software for control loops assessment and diagnosis called ExperTune PlantTriage®.

The phases of the project included installation and configuration of PlantTriage®, initial diagnosis, elaboration and execution of an action plan and trainings. The focus of the project was on the identification of gas consumption reduction opportunities and temperature control variability reduction. It consists of a rollout opportunity of this optimization project to other areas of Villares Metals (e.g., electric furnaces of the rolling mill unit and forgery operations and steel mill area).

High Performance Delivered

The main benefit of this project was the gas consumption reduction, including:

8.7 percent gas specific consumption reduction of LPV1 furnace.
3 hours peak time reduction of the of R1 cycle of the box furnace, which lead to approximately 3.75 percent total gas consumption reduction of the furnaces.
Operational improvement and maintenance time reduction of VTG furnace.
Operational improvement of the rotary furnace.
3.9% gas specific consumption reduction of Treatment 1.
Operational safety improvement on the forgery.

Villares Metals: Control Loop Optimization and Audit