INCREASED PROFITABILITY THROUGH EXPERIENCE-BASED SOLUTIONS

Horst Wiesinger Consulting GmbH was founded with the explicit purpose of providing expert consultancy and support services for businesses involved primarily with iron & steel and energy activities. A global group of senior experts from the industry and universities offers a wide range of services for maximizing the performance and profit of your business sector. Through the combined industrial and economic background of senior experts, experienced-based and profit-oriented solutions are implemented with the goal of increasing productivity and improving product quality with a simultaneous reduction in production costs. Horst Wiesinger Consulting provides expert consultancy for Industrial and Financial Consulting as well as Technical Assistance & Training.

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Development of business strategies

- Evaluation and development of business models

- Evaluation of technology and technical processes

- Preparation of investment strategies and planning

- Mergers, acquisitions and divestment management

- Post-merger integration

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Development of business contacts

- Business development initiatives

- General and product-related representations

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Development and evaluation of business plans

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Development of structured financing concepts

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Organization of financing for international projects

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Preparation of corporate restructuring models

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Working capital management

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Business acquisitions and divestments - Financial and commercial auditing

- Evaluation of business, development of pricing models

- Negotiation support

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Assistance in the operation of iron and steel plants, including rolling mills

- SWOT analyses

- Improvement proposals

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Assistance in project start-up and plant commissioning

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Assistance in process automation

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Project management using specialized tools
(e.g., CAPE ­ Computer-Aided Project Engineering)

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Operational and maintenance training in a classroom environment and/or by applying e-Learning methods

In the field of Metallurgical Assistance Horst Wiesinger Consulting did a comprehensive Technical Audit of two Steel Plants. The aim of this audit was to survey the two Steel Plants with respect to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the current plants.

This audit started with a short assessment of the individual plants, the energy supply and the environmental situation. This audit evaluated the actual status of the plants based on the actual performance and with respect to the current product mix.

The main considerations of this analyse were those 4 parameters/criteria that govern any evaluation of a plant namely

• Strengths of a plant
• Weaknesses of a plant
• Opportunities for the future operation
• Threats which might come up in the future

This SWOT analyse was done for all those individual plants which mainly influence quality and efficiency.

On the next page the SWOT analyse of the Hot Strip Mill is presented as an example.

For one individual plant Horst Wiesinger Consulting did a Modernization study as well. This study presented all the modernization measures to overcome the equipment limitations to coil weight, availability and product quality of a Hot Strip Mill.

The results of the study showed that by adding or replacing equipment the throughput of the mill can be increased by more than 30 %. In addition to the higher throughput the measures will have decisive positive effects on mill availability, product quality, yield and operating costs as well.

Strengths

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Vintage HSM with modernized Finishing Mill and Laminar cooling:
- Hydraulic screws
- Quick work roll changing device
- Work roll bending
- Hydraulic loopers
- Laminar cooling
- Optimization and control system

Weaknesses

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Limitation to slab thickness and slab

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Limitation of roughing mill in roll force and drive power

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Low motor capacity of Finishing Mill

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Limitation of coiling capability to 10 tons coils

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Limitation of coil transport with max. coil weight of 15 tons

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Processing area facilities in obsolete condition

Opportunities

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Taking over the production of Second HSM

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Higher value added finished products meeting European standards

Threats

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High energy consumption

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High maintenance costs

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High employment costs

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Low yield

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Global and national economic environment (increasing imports, no key supplier to automotive industry)

Remarks

The already modernized Finishing Mill and Automation is a sound base for further upgrading of the coil weight.

Process and Automation Improvements

Productivity improvements from existing assets is a key factor in process automation consulting. For existing and green-field plants function-driven - and not hardware-oriented - solutions are provided by HWC:

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Assessment of current processes, automation, system platforms and product quality based on comprehensive SWOT analyses

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Identification of improvements and their benefits

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Front-end engineering and development of functional requirement specifications with a hardware-independent approach, providing support for the vital process and automation decisions

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Quality assurance during the entire system development and implementation

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Project management supported by CAPE (= Computer Aided Project Engineering) ensuring speed, quality and low implementation costs)

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Process and automation design for green-field plants

Learning and Training for Improved Human Performance

Maximize the capability of your employees. Consulting services are highly tailored to processes, their automation systems and individual goals. The requirements are defined and all levels of training are provided to equip employees with a new set of skills.

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Classroom training for a larger number of trainees

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E-learning for individuals supported by an online tutor

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Training at your plant