Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH (Salzgitter, Germany):

Grethe U., Mag. Eng. e-mail: flachstahl@salzgitter-ag.de

At the start of 2014, Salzgitter AG introduced a fundamentally new Group organization structure. This structure involved realigning operations into five business units, combining companies, and a new management structure. The new Group structure is aligned even more strongly than before to customer and market requirements, enabling a coordinated and more efficient response to customer needs. The Strip Steel Business Unit operates in a market that is exposed to considerable pressure. As these market conditions are not set to change in the near future, we need to concentrate primarily on the competitiveness of our processes and cost structures. The new maintenance concept called “iPat” for short stands for “integrated process and plant and equipment technology”. Alongside decentralized plant and equipment maintenance central maintenance is to be set in place to enable the versatile deployment of staff on different facilities. Another measure for optimizing processes is to centralize the procurement of electricity supplied externally within the Group. This activity was formerly decentralized and disparate. Competences have been combined in SZFG’s energy business. A total of 95 % of external electricity required is now procured centrally, which contributes to lowering the costs further.