Future Steel Forum 2017 – attracting some big names from the steel industry

Future Steel Forum, a major steel conference taking place in Warsaw, Poland, in June 2017 and organised with the sole purpose of discussing digital manufacturing, is attracting some big names from the global steel industry as well as leading players from the world of steel production technology, research and development and academia.

From the world of primary steel production, Dr. Michael Eder, global chief digital officer for the world-leading Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine AG, and Pinakin Chaubal, general manager of ArcelorMittalGlobal R&D, have both agreed to present papers, while leading manufacturers of steel production technology, including Danieli Automation, Fives Group, Primetals Technologies and SMS group will also be represented.

Industry 4.0 – or 'smart manufacturing' as it is known in the USA – is a ground-breaking industrial philosophy often described as the 'fourth industrial revolution'. It embraces many different aspects of digitalisation, which form a digital manufacturing platform offering steelmakers greater control and greater efficiencies.

The steel industry – more so than any other manufacturing sector – is poised to capitalise on the key facets of Industry 4.0 (big data, the Internet of Things, cyber physical systems and cyber security) and transform the way steel is produced, stored and distributed.

Other key speakers scheduled to appear in Warsaw (14-15 June 2017) include Jane Zavalishina, CEO of Yandex Data Factory, who will explain how Industry 4.0 can save steelmakers money, and Dr. Dirk Shaefer, associate professor of design engineering at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom who will take an holistic approach to the subject and examine cloud-based design and manufacturing and the growing role of 'servitisation' in Industry 4.0.

Leading representatives from the German VDEh-Betriebsforschungsintitut GmbH, led by Professor Harald Peters, will present papers on everything from the importance of semantics for every Industry 4.0 application to how digital manufacturing will change the steel industry.

KPMG AG, McKinsey & Co and CETIC (the research centre on IT) will also be speaking along with many other experts in the field.