Synergetic method between materials flow and energy flow in iron and steel intelligent manufacturing

Iron and steel enterprises are facing difficult problems such as increasing inventory, excess capacity, and poor profitability. It is urgent to solve them through the development of green and intelligent manufacturing technology for iron and steel enterprises to address the current critical situation. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of manufacturing processes in iron and steel enterprises, the materials flow (with a core of iron element flow) and its corresponding energy flow network, as well as the deficiencies of the synergy between materials flow and energy flow in existing enterprise information systems, synergetic optimization methods between materials flow and energy flow in the iron and steel manufacturing process were investigated in this paper. It revealed that the coupling between materials flow and energy flow should be planned, designed and implemented for both the unit manufacturing equipment and the overall manufacturing process. The synergetic optimization can be achieved by three approaches, including perfecting information monitoring, synergizing planning and synergizing scheduling. Based on the analysis, a schematic resolution on top of the existing information system architecture was proposed towards the optimization of production, resource and energy. The synergetic optimization between materials flow and energy flow in the iron and steel manufacturing process can be realized by improving the corresponding functions of the existing manufacturing execution system, enterprise resource planning and energy management system, facilitated by a newly proposed information subsystem handling the synergetic optimization with the support of digitization and modelling of the relevant information in materials flow and energy flow.