Through-Process Optimization (TPO), an integrated

solution for steel production with best quality and highest

productivity at lowest cost
Jan Friedemann Plaul*, Wolfgang Oberaigner*, Yuyou Zhai**, Thomas Pfatschbacher*,
Manfred Kuegel*
*Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH, **Primetals Technologies China Ltd.

Abstract: The progress of digitalization in many industries is creating new opportunities for the
improvement of overall efficiency and quality in steel production. At the same time, end-customers are
demanding steel products at higher quality levels. They look for tailor-made steel-grade solutions, short
development times for new steel grades, and the manufacturer’s ability to swiftly respond to quality
deviations that have resulted in rejections. The number of customers requesting zero-defect products is
constantly growing. As a consequence of this trend, steel producers need to target even higher quality
levels, increased process stability, greater process flexibility, and high production efficiency, in order to be
successful at manufacturing challenging products for demanding customers.

This means that steel producers need to become even more capable and to use a system that ensures accurate
and stable control of all process parameters. Producers require quick and complete access to quality- and
process-relevant data, a deep understanding of how a change in process parameters will affect the properties
of their products, and the know-how to develop products quickly and successfully. To meet these
requirements, Primetals Technologies has developed and introduced the Through-Process Optimization
(TPO) solution, which targets the smart, digital interconnection of various process units and the
accumulation of know-how along the entire steel-production chain.

Keywords: Through-Process Optimization (TPO), Through-Process Quality Control (TPQC), Through-

Process Know-How (TPKH), Made in China 2025, Digitalization

Introduction
Today’s steel producers have to perform in a highly challenging market environment that is marked by
declining raw material quality along with price volatility, increasing pressure from stricter environmental
legislation, and fierce market competition due to excess capacities all around the world.

These challenges force many steel producer to thrive into the market of high-value and high-margin steel
products like automotive grades. When moving from commodity grades and mass products to high-quality
and advanced high-strength products, steel producers have to address the following issues:

 Stable production with highest quality standard, Minimization of rejection rate: because of the
tighter production tolerances and lower process reliability under such conditions, a low rejection
 rate becomes a highly important prerequisite for a profitable production.

 Extension and intensification of quality and research activities: in order to reduce the rejection rate
while maintaining cost effective production, it becomes favorable to focus R&D and product
development efforts and to specialize in certain product areas.

 Comprehensive know-how build-up, documentation and protection measures, which are difficult to
deal with without adequate IT-system support.

 Become a learning company that is among the fastest to learn and improve, in all terms of
production, automation, technological and also internal processes.

In order to reduce the rejection rate and to provide support for product and production development,
Primetals Technologies introduced its new know-how based Through-Process Optimization Solution
(Figure 1) [1,2,3].

Figure 1 Overview of Through-Process Optimization

1 Through-Process Know-How

1.1 Metallurgical know-how for quality control, rules generation and KPI definition
For production of high value add steel products many hundreds of properties, parameters and
conditions have to fit together and to be aligned to achieve good product quality and a cost efficient and
stable production (Figure 2). To develop rules which are controlling the process and quality parameters of
the product, a deep understanding of all metallurgical reactions and complex physical processes is
mandatory. In a first step metallurgical experts are defining for each process unit a “basic set of rules”
which will be implemented in the TPQC system by using a special rule editor. Beside the development of
formulas for the rules, the experts also implementing a set of possible route causes in case of deviation as
well a set of corrective actions for the individual process unit.
 Figure 2 Metallurgical know-how along the entire steel production route

In a second step a set of compensational actions is defined for each type of deviation which can be
applied for downstream process units. The intelligent design of the rules enables an automatic evaluation of
possible route causes by the TPQC system. It is also possible to define different set of rules for individual
steel grades or groups.

To measure the efficiency and the process stability for each process unit, Key Performance Indicators
are developed by experts and implemented in TPQC. Together with the plant management the target setting
for each KPI is agreed. During regular review meetings the performance of the individual KPIs are verified
and action plans are developed and agreed to improve the performance. The KPI tracking can be therefore
an important part of the continual improvement process (CIP) of a steel plant.

1.2 Expert Service

For the implementation of TPO and in order to resolve specific problems, Primetals Technologies
supports its customers with its own experts and with external consultants. These specialists are highly
experienced and cover various disciplines, acting as consultants for a wide range of topics; for example,
plant operation, quality management, maintenance, or end-customer qualification (Figure 3). Primetals
Technologies also provides training sessions for steel producers who decide to implement TPO. In close
cooperation with the respective customer, the team of experts devises and incorporates an optimal set of
rules into the customer’s TPQC system. These rules will ensure better control of the steel-production
process, optimize product-quality consistency, and improve general plant operation.
 Figure 3 Through-Process Know-How modules

2 Through-Process Quality Control System

The basis of the TPO solution is the Through- Process Quality Control (TPQC) system, which creates
a central database by receiving quality- and process-relevant production data from all production units via
the Level 1 or Level 2 automation systems. Additionally, laboratory measurements and data from all types
of sensors and equipment are centrally stored. The TPQC creates an information-rich genealogy of each
individual product that is processed, and makes it possible to retrieve process data of all production steps for
every part of the product. This allows users of TPQC to track quality issues in very little time and analyze
them by reviewing process data for all relevant production steps, which is key for fast troubleshooting and
claim management. Figure 4shows the TPQC System embedded into the Automation and IT-environment.

Figure 4 Integration of TPQC with Automation and IT-Systems

The essential functionality of TPQC is to ensure desired product properties and increase quality levels
by monitoring all quality-relevant process parameters along the full production route at defined quality
gates. Therefore, communication between the production-management system (PMS) and individual
automation systems of each production unit is required to evaluate distinct steps of the production process.
 2.1 Product Genealogy
The TPQC automation system is collecting all relevant process and production data provided by the
various plant units of the whole process chain from iron making through hot rolling, cold rolling, annealing
and galvanizing (Figure 5). In addition to pure process data, which is collected from various processing unit,
the genealogy information interconnects this data across all involved processing unit. I.e., the genealogy
keeps track about elongation factors, head/tail changes, upside/down-changes as well as cutting and welding
operations that are possible between different processing units of the production chain.

Figure 5 Genealogy based data tracking across multiple processing units

The genealogy information supports claim management, since no important information would be lost
any more. Even after years it will be possible to deal with a customer claim since heat number, slab number
and coil numbers, even daughter coils and sheets can be identified and any relevant deviation or defect
before delivery may have been logged in the long-term archive of TPQC.

2.2 Quality Control System Functionality

Quality conformance checks are carried out by means of a specific rule system on the production data
and the results will be shown to operators and quality engineers, respectively, depending on the kind of
quality issue and location in the plant. The TPQC rule editor supports rule debugging with test data sets and
rule version management. By means of the rule editor TPQC offers a flexible way for quality checks, which
paves the way for future adaptions and extensions without having to change any part of the system’s source
code. The rule system of TPQC is also an important pillar for Primetals Technologies Through-Process
Know-How described above.
 Figure 6 Quality control function along the production route

Figure 6 shows the principle of this process / quality checking inside TPQC. A green traffic light
indicates all values (of a production unit) are inside the specified bounds. A yellow should express the
detection of minor problems, requiring some further checks i.e. downstream the unit in default to remedy. A
red light should indicate more serious issues which in most cases need a more complex remedial action and
final decision plan to resolve the problem, which even can include a dismissal of the product in the worst
case. What can be defined as minor and major has to be developed from the process experience and must be
finally specified as expert rules.

2.3 Deviation and Root-cause analysis

Root-cause analysis (RCA) [4] is a method of problem solving used for identifying the root-causes of
faults or problems, well known from literature and required by the ISO/TS standards for automotive
production [5]. In general, RCA is often addressed by several methods and has to be applied iteratively as a
tool of continuous improvement (Figure 7). In order to support quality engineers and operators in respect of
root-cause analysis across multiple production processes, TPQC provides a semi-automatic approach:

1. In case of a detected deviation, a list of highly probable root-causes is shown to the operators or
quality engineers depending on the plant location and organizational responsibility.
2. Each root-cause comes with a specific description for root-cause verification, in order to eventually
remove any doubt in cases in which more than just one root-cause might be possible.
3. After identification of the actual root-cause, the responsible person places a check-mark and thereby
confirms the root-cause for the given quality deviation.
4. The system keeps track of the root-causes for any detected quality deviation and calculates a root-
cause statistic.
 Figure 7 Semi-Automatic Root-Cause Analysis Support

The documentation of root-causes for identified quality deviations is mandatory in case of some
quality standards like ISO/TS 16949 [2]. In addition, a root-cause statistic can be calculated for an arbitrary
time period and thereby enables the calculation of trends over time. Hence, the root-cause statistic feature is
a valuable aid to provide convincing evidence on the effectiveness of the quality management with respect
to continual improvements. In particular, it is a useful tool for the plant manager, enabling a strict
monitoring of deviation frequencies, in order to identify the most frequent and most costly deviations. These
identified deviations may then be addressed by additional problem solving methods and corrective actions
(see below), if adequate.

2.4 Corrective and compensational actions

A corrective action can be defined as a set of actions to eliminate the cause of a quality deviation under
specific conditions. Unfortunately, the production environment is subject to a large number of influences
like any kind of external disturbances, raw material unknowns as well as the human factor and other non-
deterministic events. Hence, it is seldom possible to eliminate the cause of a quality issue permanently. For
this reason, the definition of corrective action has to be broadened in so far as a certain corrective action for
a given root-cause may eliminate a quality deviation absolutely and permanently only under the specific
condition that applied previously, although not all of them can be determined or measured and archived.

A compensational action is defined as an action to repair an already affected semi-finished product,

e.g. by cutting out defective sections from a strip or by means of surface scarfing of a slab as indicated in
the example below etc. Because of the fact that the system provides guidance to operators and quality
engineers, the tool can also be seen as a learning tool in that regard. It is a fact that people who are actively
involved in root-cause analysis for some time will become more aware regarding quality related influences,
which allows them to take preventive measures even before a quality related incident happens, that is
without having to wait for TPQC root-cause suggestions at any rate and for any incident, respectively.

Thus, TPQC can be used as a pure conformance tool for quality checks and root-cause analysis
support, but the real benefit of this system is realized when it is also used as a continual learning tool in
order to improve the skill level of operators and quality engineers. The next easy example in Figure 8deals
with quality issues in the melt-shop.
 Figure 8 Root-Cause Analysis within the Melt-Shop

This Figure 8 illustrates the example of a produced heat, which is planned to arrive subsequently at a
continuous casting machine. In the given case, the hot-metal ladle passes the desulphurization DeS and
dephosphorization stage DeP without any quality related issues regarding the analysis (chemistry,
temperature) at the end of the processes (green traffic light).

At the end of the BOF process, however, the L2 system indicates a temperature of the liquid steel that
violates the grade specific requirements. In this case, TPQC evaluates the temperature by means of process
specific rules and records a quality issue. In addition, the TPQC system immediately suggests a re-blow at
the BOF and if this is confirmed by the operator, a message is sent to the operator at the continuous casting
machine to reduce the casting speed. By reducing the casting speed, TPQC tries to compensate for the
additional processing time caused by the re-blow at the BOF, which otherwise would increase the risk of a
sequence break or slab quality issues.

In addition, the system indicates again a list of likely root causes for this problem. In the example case,
a new material had been used for the material additions. I.e., the operators had not managed to update the L2
data base with the new material data in time, which led to an inaccurate calculation of the L2 model for the
BOF process and finally caused the temperature deviation.
 Figure 9 Quality Assistance

Figure 9shows a screenshot of how TPQC in its current release indicates root-causes for recorded
quality issues to quality engineers. The list on the left hand side of the screen shows all semi-finished
products for a given day (in this case filtered for heats). The selection of a heat with recorded quality issues
(indicated by the call sign) indicates all recorded quality alarms (quality issues). In this case there are two
quality alarms. By selecting a quality alarm, the instructions for verification as well as root causes are
shown in the text window at the bottom of the screen.

Even though the given example shows a root-cause analysis for a single process unit, this kind of root-
cause analysis is not restricted to single processes or plant areas (melt-shop, hot strip mill, cold mill etc.). By
means of carefully specified rules for root-cause analysis, TPQC can also indicate root-causes across
process or plant boundaries, e.g. a root-cause in the melt shop that causes surface issues at a later stage like
the hot-strip mill. In this way, the system supports through-process root-cause analysis, which is especially
useful in case of certain surface defects that can be tracked back to the liquid phase. Surface defect rules as
well as surface grading will be treated in section 2.5 below.

2.5 Automatic product grading

TPQC incorporates a rule-based module for coil-grading. The coil-grading module pre-processes
surface defect maps. Afterwards, the grading-module performs an in-depth evaluation of the defect map, in
order to determine instantly whether a coil surface quality matches the pre-defined requirements of the end-
customer – and what action to take if this is not the case.
 Figure 10 Various surface defects scattered across a hot rolled coil

2.6 Key Performance Indicator evaluation and visualization

The centralized collection of data enables the generation of key performance indicators (KPIs), which
convey information about technical and business-related achievements and illustrate what progress has been
made. Possible targets are new product-quality or process-efficiency levels, both related to individual
processing steps or the entire production chain. TPQC implements various types of graphical human-
machine interfaces to support staff members from the quality and production departments, as well as top-
management executives, in monitoring and benchmarking production conditions with respect to specific
targets that are in alignment with the KPIs.

Figure 11 KPI Visualization

2.7 Statistic-process control (SPC)

SPC [6] is a reliable and proven tool to provide statistical evidence that a production process stays
within its predefined operational range and therefore behaves in a controlled way. There are significant
advantages of having this statistical process control applied to quality assurance processes, since sooner or
later statistical significant deviations of process values will have an impact on the product quality. In
general, SPC aims on sampling data which is meant to be stable over a long period of time in order to allow
 for a reliable detection of undesired process dynamic. TPQC can follow up single process criteria but also
combined calculated performance indicators and KPIs, and offers SPC charts for selectable material/product
related measurements or process data.

Figure 12 SPC Standard Diagram

Figure 12shows a typical SPC control chart with a list of subgroups at the top of the window. Each
subgroup which is exceeding the upper or lower control limit indicated by red or blue according to a
violation of the upper or lower control limit.

2.8 Machine learning capabilities

The extraordinary large amount of structured data in the TPQC system is perfectly suited for analysis
with data mining and machine learning algorithms. TPQC offers a direct interface to transfer data effortlessly
to leading data mining platforms. All acquired data is automatically assigned to the correct products along the
process chain (steel making heat, slab, hot rolled strip, cold rolled strip, galvanized strip) by the genealogy
function in the TPQC. Data mining and machine learning in combination with TPQC has following benefits:

 Fast analysis for data quality and potential problems of measurements, manual inputs, etc.

 Quick analysis of multi-variate problems e.g. variation of mechanical properties by visualizing the
raw data from TPQC

 Root cause analysis of problems using through process data and applying advanced data mining
methods

 Predictions using machine learning methods for end of line properties of products or process stability
Closing the loop by creating new rules, KPIs or SPC charts in TPQC based on the Data Mining results. The
Data Mining functionality of TPQC supports quality and process engineers in optimizing the product quality
and stabilizing the production process. It is an extremely useful tool to increase the productivity of
technologists and engineers throughout the process chain.

Figure 13 Example for Data Mining project and definition of actions

3 Conclusions
This paper presents an overview of the new developed Through-Process Optimization solution. The
holistic approach and the combination of metallurgical and operational know-how with an intelligent IT-
system allows steel producers to improve their overall efficiency, achieving higher levels of quality and
developing and maintain their know-how basis.

References
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[4] Wilson, Paul F.; Dell, Larry D.; Anderson, Gaylord F. (1993). Root Cause Analysis: A Tool for Total Quality Management.
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ISO
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