About

Starting Semester: Fall 2024
Assigned: No
Location: Calvert

AMNS Calvert

Client Profile

AM/NS Calvert is a 50/50 joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC). The steel processing plant is located in Calvert, Alabama, about 35 miles north of Mobile. Purchased by ArcelorMittal and NSC in 2014, the plant has served the North American market since 2010 with the capacity to produce 5.3 million tons of flat-rolled carbon steel products annually. AM/NS Calvert is recognized as one of the most advanced steel finishing facilities in the world and is highly complementary to ArcelorMittal’s existing portfolio of world-class assets. The facility includes a river terminal, hot strip mill, cold rolling mill, three hot-dip galvanizing lines, rail yard, and supporting infrastructure. The facility serves the automotive, construction, pipe and tube, service center, and appliance/ HVAC industries with a portfolio of steel grades for high-value applications including hot rolled bands, hot rolled pickled and oiled, cold-rolled, and advanced coated products. AM/NS Calvert also helps ArcelorMittal to meet increasing OEM demand for advanced high strength steels that are needed to produce lighter-weight, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Project Description

AM/NS Calvert is looking to optimize the intra-plant material flow and material handling system. An effective and efficient material flow requires a model or software to manage, coordinate, and optimize the movements of transport devices, such as trucks and trailers, taking into consideration the multiple constraints of the intra-plant material handling.

For this purpose, AM/NS Calvert needs a tool which dispatches and directs trucks for moving coils and slabs in an effective and efficient way. This tool must determine the optimal deployment of the existing fleet of trucks and trailers based on a list of input variables, given constraints, optimization parameters, and within a set time frame.

The necessity of this tool could be beneficial immediately, since today’s process is done manually by phone and email between the various coordinators and truck drivers. This tool must provide three major benefits to AM/NS Calvert:

1. Cost savings through the reduction in operational expenses.

2. Time savings through replacing decentralized human interaction and decision making with a centralized decision model.

3. Higher productivity through increased visibility, reduction in process variation, and less errors.

Skills

Process improvement, data analysis, problem solving, creative thinking, programming, optimization, simulation.