In June 2024, SMS group USA carried out an extensive mill health check for the CSP® plant at Steel Dynamics (SDI) in Butler, Indiana, USA. This on-site assessment covered various aspects such as process stability, service and maintenance, electrics and automation, digital tools, mechanics, and hydraulics. Thanks to the excellent relationship with the customer's hot strip mill team, SDI graciously hosted and supported this effort, offering a detailed tour and theoretical training on their hot rolling processes, as well as in-depth safety training for SMS experts.
Building on this, SMS leverages the experience gained from its extensive installed base at various locations to provide detailed reports to customers, aiming to enhance the performance of their equipment and production. Recommendations for short, mid, and long-term actions are made, where SMS utilizes its strengths and synergies in integrated automation, digital, and service solutions to support customers as a lifecycle partner.
A valuable experience and partnership
This event is a good example of excellent customer relations. By creating a lifecycle partnership and a valuable experience, both sites look forward to continuing these efforts in the future.
Randy Patterson, SDI Butler Hot Strip Mill Manager stated:
“It was a great experience to have SMS group at our site and we gathered at least seven relevant topics with good ideas that we are planning to follow up on going forward. We would be glad to host another mill health check for SMS in the future.”
Part of the program was also theoretical training on hot rolling process and technology. Jack Fantoni, SMS group Mechanical Engineer said of the event:
“Randy Patterson and the team at SDI Butler were very gracious hosts that provided a bedrock for a great learning experience for a young engineer. I greatly look forward to participating in more mill health checks in the future to not only continue to assist our customers in our ever growing partnership, but to also become a better engineer through these experiences.”
