MMK and Siemens develop integration platform and create competence centre

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and Siemens LLC (a subsidiary of Siemens AG in Russia) entered into an agreement to develop an integration platform and create a competence centre based on MMK. The document was signed by Director General of MMK Pavel Shilyaev and President of Siemens in Russia Alexander Liberov.

MMK chose WinCC Open Architecture integration platform from Siemens as the principal product for the real-time database of the MMK Group's digital platform.

The WinCC Open Architecture integration platform is designed to establish a flexible and scalable system for gathering, storing, visualising, preparing, and transmitting data, hence contributing to more efficient use of resources of large companies such as MMK. The platform will enable the implementation of plans to connect all of the Group's production facilities into a unified information environment, ensuring the transparency of technological processes and raising the level of production management.

Siemens and MMK design teams have already started working together. In particular, they have developed a roadmap for the implementation of the platform at the MMK site. In the first stage, it is planned to audit the enterprise's digital landscape, then use it as a foundation for developing an architecture for a single information space based on WinCC Open Architecture, developing the concept of interaction with other components of the MMK digital platform, and reviewing information security issues.

The second and following stages will focus on deploying the platform on MMK’s information resources and implementing specific practical cases on its basis.

The formation of the WinCC OA Competence Centre based on MMK-Informservice will be a critical milestone in the platform's implementation. As part of this task, the resource base of the centre will be identified and created, and MMK specialists will be trained.

“MMK's digital transformation is one of our company's primary development vectors. We are consistently implementing the Digitalisation Strategy, which is intended to provide innovative support to the company's portfolio of strategic projects through 2025 and to bring the potential of digital technologies and Industry 4.0 to life. Around 200 MMK digital initiatives encompass nearly all areas of activity and business processes. I am certain that digitalisation solutions from Siemens, one of which is the WinCC Open Architecture integration platform, will enable us to boost the efficiency of data use and, as a result, the overall activities of MMK Group,” Director General of MMK Pavel Shilyaev said.

“We are delighted that MMK has selected a Siemens solution. We are certain that the development of Russian industry in today's reality will be impossible without advanced digital technologies, which Siemens is working hard to develop. Efficient data platforms are crucial for it, as they are critical for all digital industrial processes. The use of the WinCC Open Architecture would undoubtedly aid one of the world's major steel producers in increasing efficiency and provide prospects for future expansion,” President of Siemens in Russia Alexander Liberov said.