The IBM Steel Industry Solutions Group provides leading-edge solutions of combinatorial optimization problems for steel manufacturers. Our solutions are based on advanced techniques from operations research, and artificial intelligence combined with industry experiences.
Problem areas in steel production planning/scheduling are
Optimizing each problem area independently can result in significant savings for a steel manufacturer. However, these areas are all inter-related and even greater gains can be achieved by simultaneously optimizing closely related problems.
We have proven track records of providing leading steel manufacturers with excellent solutions.
Our strategy is to work with world-class steel makers to develop applications that do not currently exist as commerical off-the-shelf products and can not be effectively developed by using vendor software tools, but can make differentiation in the marketplace by increased service and/or by significant operations cost reduction.
In a competitive industry like steel, intellectual property is an important issue. Our clients rightly wish to protect the products and process that differentiate them in the marketplace. IBM may retain intellectual property rights to those solution techniques that we bring to our clients that are applicable to other steelmakers.
We achieve this balance by making a clear delineation between the client problem and the abstraction of the client problem. Where possible, our solution techniques operate on the abstraction, and so, as long as none of the client's sensitive intellectual property is present in the abstraction, IBM is free to develop better algorithms for these abstraction, and is, simultaneously, in a better position to rapidly develop applications for other clients.
In addition, IBM world-wide country operations work very closely with our group to leverage their local expertise and customer relations.
Below are links to documentation covering some aspects of our work.
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Ho Soo Lee
IBM Thomas. J. Watson Research Center P.O. Box 218 Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 U.S.A. Phone: (914) 945-3538 Fax: (914) 945-2141 Email: leehs@us.ibm.com |
