Is your scrap yard ready for a production increase?
The situation
A production increase to 1.3 million tonnes per year didn’t just challenge the melt shop — it tested the scrap yard too.
Our analysis of the scrap yard operations revealed three key challenges:
- Ensuring consistent scrap supply — the melt shop can’t wait
- Managing high crane utilization — the loading crane was at its limit
- Balancing truck and train deliveries — to meet increased demand
What we found
The current scrap yard layout could not keep up with the melt shop production increase. Bucket loading times were too long, and crane travel distances were excessive.
So we tested a redesigned scrap yard layout with optimized storage areas and faster loading methods.
Results
The new layout reduced crane travel times and confirmed that the redesign was necessary to support the production target. However, with this bottleneck resolved, the next constraint became the scrap supply itself — requiring either more trucks or better train logistics.
There is always one constraint. The question is whether you find it before or after the investment.
Advanced simulations reveal these critical insights early — when you can still act on them.