Software to fine-tune the process helps Tata Steel reduce downtime (Part 2)

HTD (Hoogoven Technische dienst – blast furnace engineering service) is an internal service provider for the maintenance department of Tata Steel business units. They quickly realized the benefits of Versiondog and soon became very focused on the system.

The software has been provided on the central network for individual business units. They can choose to take advantage of Versiondog in the basic service subscription. To maximize the number of members, Versiondog version is now set up to be able to upgrade to a parallel server system.

Last year, Tata Steel Europe produced 10 million tons of steel and generated sales of 7.9 billion euros. Nearly all production processes at Ijmuiden are continuous and need to be maintained 24/7, so avoiding downtime is a top priority.

That’s a big part of why Versiondog is used on boards there, on all production lines. But because Tata Steel’s business units have a high degree of autonomy, the ways in which they use Versiondog are significantly different and varied.

“That’s because different units are involved in different types of manufacturing,” explains Hassan El Haddad, technical automation expert at HTD. “Despite such differences, they all still use the same version of Versiondog software and that shows us just how flexible the system is.

The fact that no rules are centrally installed tends to lead different units to use Versiondog in different ways. The way they use the software depends on the situation in each unit. But a core part of Versiondog is that you never lose any data,” he added, “And you always record all changes, so there’s no need to impose any concerns. Let’s get onto the system.”

There are currently 18 units and about 200 users have access to Versiondog. Hassan El Haddad and René Blaauw, as two of the system administrators, can centrally monitor and manage about 3,000 components on Versiondog.

The number of backups created from device driver programs is steadily increasing. Depending on the needs in each specific production area, some are done daily, some weekly and some monthly. About 150 backups of more important devices are made every day.

(To be continued)

Productivity and Quality Office