IIT Bombay and Tata Steel Wins INFORMS Franz Edelman Finalist Award 2024

The INFORMS Franz Edelman Finalist Award 2024 was presented to IIT Bombay and Tata Steel, India. The competition this year witnessed participation from numerous teams worldwide. Know details here 

During the Edelman Gala night at the INFORMS Business Analytics Conference 2024 in Orlando, USA, the team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Tata Steel, India, was honoured with the 2024 INFORMS Franz Edelman Finalist Award. After two rounds of review spanning four months by INFORMS Society judges, the Tata Steel and IITB team had reached the finals, along with American Airlines, McDonald’s China, ALDI Sud Germany, Molslinjen Denmark, and Transvision Netherlands.

This esteemed accolade, recognising outstanding industrial applications of operations research, is presented annually by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS Society, USA), making it one of the foremost honours in the field. During the Edelman Gala night, Tata Steel and IIT Bombay were inducted as members of the prestigious Franz Edelman Academy.

Tata Steel India and IIT Bombay team Anil Pujari, Chief of Flat Products Manufacturing, Dr. Jose Korath, Chief of Intelligent Systems & Mathematical Modelling group, Sujit Jaganade, Lead Engineer and Prof. Sachin Patwardhan at the award function with INFORMS Executive Director Dr. Elena Gerstmann (on the left) and Prof Julie Swann, (University of North Carolina and INFORMS President 2024. 

Tata Steel India has revolutionised its continuous steel annealing process in its key product line through predictive control leveraging advanced analytics and optimization. This enhancement is crucial in ensuring the quality of cold rolled steel strips by precisely managing the annealing furnace temperature. Despite challenges such as slow furnace dynamics, time delays, and fluctuations in steel mass flow rate and target annealing temperatures, Tata Steel has successfully optimized this complex process, thereby enhancing product quality and efficiency.

To address these challenges, a novel Model Predictive Control (MPC) technology-based solution has been developed in-house by Tata Steel, India for the continuous annealing furnace with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay as the academic consultant. The system is controlled by repeatedly solving a sequence of finite horizon optimal control problems online, once every minute. This approach ensures smooth changes in strip temperature profile during steel grade transitions and prevents the violation of operating constraints. 

The MPC-based supervisory optimal control solution has been successfully implemented in real-time operations since January 2023. The systematic implementation of the optimal control solution has led to a significant improvement in the proportion of annealed products meeting the premium quality band and prevented the redirection of 13,000 tons of material outside the control band annually. This solution has reduced fuel consumption per ton of steel by 8%, which has resulted in an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions annually. 

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