How can artificial intelligence be used to improve the production of steel tubes? To get to the bottom of this question, adesso supported Vallourec in analysing the influence of key production process parameters on the tube diameter - the material properties and tube diameters can only actually be determined after the end of the production process in a cold state. The knowledge gained will be used to intervene in the process in real time in order to improve product quality and increase productivity at the same time.
AI as a tool for analysing and optimising manufacturing processes
Vallourec
Project
Highlights of the project
Automatic generation of reports
Having automatically generated reports for analysing data quality allows for continuous monitoring of and improvements to be made to production processes.
Higher product quality
Greater precision can be achieved in production if parameters that cause errors are identified early on. By doing so, it is possible to avoid production errors and reduce costs accordingly.
Increase in product quality
The platform-agnostic process standardises machine data, saving time and reducing the complexity of production processes.
Goals
- Monitoring and improvement of production processes
- Identification of error-causing parameters
- Standardisation of machine data
Project
- Orientation towards the cross-industry standard process-for-data-mining procedure model (CRISP-DM for short)
- Workshops with customers
- Close feedback loops with the customer's technical experts
- Definition of measurable project goals to evaluate the model quality
Technology
- Data storage on Microsoft Azure
- Modern machine learning Python frameworks
- Explainability of the machine learning models via "SHAP" (Shapley Additive exPlanations)
Our services
- Consolidation and standardisation of machine and measurement data from various sources on the basis of a platform-agnostic process
- Analysing the data using modern machine learning methods and frameworks
- Creation of a forecast model of the production result based on the machine parameters and measured values
Vallourec Deutschland GmbH specialises in the production of seamless steel tubes for various applications in the energy sector, mechanical engineering, steel construction and other industrial applications. The broad product range is complemented by digital services and services as well as intelligent and innovative solutions for the entire value chain of Vallourec customers.
In the manufacturing process, each tube is subjected to an inspection, although it is only possible to react indirectly to possible defects, as around 40 tubes are already in the production pipeline at this point.
For 10 years, Vallourec has been collecting reliable data on the starting material and measured values of the individual production steps, as well as the settings of the production machines.
Do you have any questions?
There is no website or broschure which can replace a personal meeting to talk about your goals and topics. We are looking forward to an appointment on site.
Head of Competence Center Production Dr Patrick Kübler mi-sales@adesso.de