Tata Steel Nederland runs their Hot Strip Mill and Hot Dip Galvanizing Line on the Siemens Industrial Automation DataCenter. They required support with maintaining and securing this critical IT/OT infrastructure due to resource constraints and the need for specialized expertise. At another production site - the Coldmill Annealing Bay - Tata Steel Nederland was seeking increased continuity, efficiency, and sustainability in its production operations. A shortage of skilled workers and complex automated systems and processes could lead to high downtime costs, while strict environmental regulations might have imposed heavy penalties for noncompliance.

To address these challenges, Tata Steel decided on a Siemens approach made up of two solutions.   
 
Remote Industrial Operations Services for expert maintenance and security: 

• At the Hot Strip Mill and the Hot Dip Galvanizing Line they implemented the Siemens Managed IT/OT Infrastructure with Remote Industrial Operations Services for continuous monitoring, maintenance, management and cyber protection of close to 300 systems of their Industrial Automation DataCenter. 
• System availability is optimized through various services such as continuous monitoring for early detection of issues, incident management for quick restoration to normal operations, disaster recovery support in case of a shutdown, as well as regular reporting for transparency and accountability. 
• The system is protected through various security measures such as patching, traffic monitoring and vulnerability management. 
• The maintenance of the infrastructure includes update services, preventive and periodic maintenance, backup and restore, configuration and change management as well as asset management. 
• Siemens provides remote support and expert assistance as well as technical product and hardware support for the Industrial Automation DataCenter.

Senseye Predictive Maintenance for intelligent and data-driven asset management: 

• With Senseye Predictive Maintenance, Tata Steel Nederland took the Coldmill Annealing Bay to the next level of digitalization. 
• The predictive maintenance application leverages shopfloor data and AI-driven algorithms to create models that alert maintenance teams to emerging issues to prevent possible failures instead of correcting them after they occur. 
• One example of this is a case where the Senseye application detected a reduction in airflow caused by a clogging filter in the exhaust air cleaning unit. The system identified a mismatch between increasing fan speed and decreasing flow rate - an early sign of filter blockage. This insight allowed the maintenance team to intervene before a full blockage occurred, replacing the filter, updating control parameters, increasing inspection frequency and also preventing the release of harmful fumes into the environment.
• Senseye Predictive Maintenance’s built-in Generative AI Copilot also helped to bridge the knowledge gap within maintenance teams and gives technicians more guidance on occurring problems.

Tata Steel plant Nederland is one of the largest steel manufacturers in the world, with an annual crude steel capacity of 35 million tons and more than 77,000 employees worldwide.