Divide et impera

By Irene García, Celsa Group

The phrase ‘divide and conquer’ is commonly attributed to Julius Caesar in relation to his strategy for expanding the Roman Empire. Despite its clearly warlike origins, it has a project management-oriented context here. In fact, if we were to take one of the most fashionable project management methodologies, it would be the basis of the Agile methodology. A technique which, by breaking down a large project into smaller tasks, makes it easier to manage and monitor.  

Specifically, this maxim has been applied to ALCHIMIA to start delivering models to Celsa industrial users.    

The Beta version was scheduled to be delivered at the end of January 2025, but the complexity of working with real-time data in 3 industrial plants with high data volumes and the usual ETL problems arising from any data integration process caused a certain delay. It was therefore decided to divide the beta version of the presentation of the unit models into three phases: 

Beta 1.0 includes scrap characterization, scrap mix calculation and EAF v1 (modelling) from BFI and the ladle furnace from SSSA. 

Beta 2.0 includes scrap inventory and processing from SSSA and the second version of the Dynamic EAF model with control and optimization options. 

Beta 3.0 includes the Federated Learning approaches for the Ladle Furnace and EAF models. 

In March 2025, the Beta 1.0 models were released for demonstration on a plant-by-plant basis and access to the BFI models was provided to a small group of users. As the individual models contain sensitive information that should not be accessible to just any operator, validation of the models throughout the Beta phase will be carried out using high level profiles. The aim is to provide the developers with qualitative feedback to improve the models for the Gold version. 

The Gold version, in which all the models will operate in a convergent manner and under a black box, will be tested by a larger number of final users.