The ideas of lean production in mining and metallurgy were presented by Magnitogorsk residents

Magnitogorsk State Technical University named after G.I. Nosov has already hosted the traditional qualifying stage of the Student League of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" with the support of the presidential platform "Russia – the land of Opportunities".  "CASE-IN" is implemented within the framework of the federal project "Social elevators for everyone" of the national project "Education".

"We started with the Mining business, then we added the Electric Power Industry and Metallurgy. To date, we have announced 19 teams, which are about 70 students. This year, a team from SUSU is also taking part on our site. In recent years, it has been clearly seen that the participating teams are growing in terms of solving problems in this championship, since some kind of real case is being put forward for the solution, a task that has no known solution. When the championship was just starting, the guys offered standard ideas from the manuals, but now they are fantasizing, finding original solutions and at the same time evaluating the economic component. An important component of the championship is the participation of real experts from the industry, who contribute to the formation of the case assignment, and then evaluate the proposals and ideas of the teams.", - explains the vice-rector for educational Activities of the Moscow State Technical University named after G.I. Nosov. Ildar Abdulveleyev.

The student teams had to develop a solution to the problems in 10 days and submit them to experts in the field of mining and metallurgy.

Thus, the participants of the Mining business direction, on behalf of ALROSA, analyzed the processes and indicators of sinking operations at the mine. The guys needed to offer solutions to optimize them and reduce costs, taking into account the provisions of the lean manufacturing concept.

One of the teams, after analyzing the initial data, proposed to abandon the use of one of the drilling rigs, replacing it with another, which, according to the guys, would reduce the cost of purchasing equipment. The team is confident that their idea will reduce the time for blasting operations by 30 minutes and reduce the cost of consumables.

The Metallurgy case, which was developed by representatives of United Company RUSAL, was dedicated to improving the efficiency of business processes and aluminum production technology based on lean manufacturing tools.

The Fepuku team has delved into the company's production technology in its development.

"We had to develop lean manufacturing tools and improve the company's technology. We proposed automating the filling, replacing transport on the railway track and on overhead cranes. We have paid more attention to the technology of aluminum production itself. We have answered all the experts' questions. The difficulty in developing ideas was that we are future specialists in ferrous metallurgy, we are closer to cast iron and steel, but here we had to understand non-ferrous metallurgy.", - The 3rd year students of the MMB-21-6 group of the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Material Processing of the Moscow State Technical University named after G.I. Nosov told Aslan Aslaev and Nikolai Korostov.

The work of the student teams was evaluated by an expert commission consisting of specialists from leading industry companies LLC MRK, OJSC MMK-METIZ, JSC ALROSA, JSC United Company RUSAL and university teachers.

"We evaluated the technical possibilities of implementing ideas, the creativity or novelty of the proposed solution, the economic component, and how well the teams economically evaluated their decision. This year, the solutions were quite new, interesting, and well-developed, both economically and technically. However, from the point of view of lean manufacturing, this is one of the evaluation criteria, not all teams met, there is still something to strive for and improve on.", - said the expert, Head of the Department of Geology and Surveying and Mineral Processing at the Moscow State Technical University named after G.I. Nosov Igor Grishin. 

The winners of the qualifying stage will represent the Chelyabinsk region in the semi-finals. The final of the CASE-IN championship will be held in Moscow at the end of May 2024.

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