UTFacultiesBMSDept HBEIEBISEducationGraduation assignments2017-07 MSc or BSc assignment: Mill-optimization in Tata Steel Tubes Oosterhout

2017-07 MSc or BSc assignment: Mill-optimization in Tata Steel Tubes Oosterhout

Mill-optimization in Tata Steel Tubes Oosterhout

Background

Tata Steel Tubes NL Oosterhout is one of the three Tubes sites in the Netherlands. It is part of Tata Steel Europe, one of the top employers in Netherlands. In Oosterhout, cold formed welded tube is produced from strip steel on five mills. Increased flexibility between the mills increases delivery performance and resilience to future market changes. A new project to create additional capacity can be used to switch production volume. The project also enables development of new products, consisting of Contiflo tubes of length 8,0m to 10,3m in the (larger) diameter range of the KV34. Finally, grouping products on mills, instead of splitting across mills, creates possibilities for independent process and product development strategies per mill. One of these developments is the R&D TOP50 MagiZinc for Contiflo project, where one of the current major challenges is likely having to invest in multiple lines at once because of product groups split across mills.

The assignment will be used for practical implementation at the site, as well as to form input to the PhD study on Organizational Learning and supply chain by Tom Eussen.

Research Question

A new investment is made to allow for increased flexibility on the different mills, which will allow for further product development. The research questions can be (but are not limited to):

  1. Provide a theoretical overview of relevant supply chain concepts to be applied
  2. Investigate current routing and scheduling requirements for on-site material flows
  3. Identify optimal solution and cost savings achieved.

Research Method

Use of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of on-site flows will help to determine the optimal solution.

Requirements

Dutch and preferably English speaking and willingness to live in the area for the duration of the assignment.

Information

Please contact Tom Eussen at tom.eussen@tatasteel.com (+44-7748931350) or Jos van Hillegersberg at j.vanhillegersberg@utwente.nl (+31-53- 4893513).