Interesting tasks, the opportunity to find yourself and immersion in technological processes
Maxim Feopentov is a member of the program committee of the new conference “Ontiko” for IT specialists in industry Industrial++. He told us what was happening in the industry and why conferences for programmers from factories were needed. For 5 years, Maxim has been working as Director of IT Development at EVRAZ, engaged in digital transformation and automation of business processes throughout the entire production chain of mining and metallurgical processing. We asked Maxim what it was like to work at a real sector enterprise that deals with metallurgy, and what has kept him in this industry all these years.
— What brought you to industry? How did you end up there, what inspired you?
— When you automate some kind of production business process, you need expert knowledge in the subject area. You have to immerse yourself in the chemistry and physics of the process. As a result, you solve a complex engineering problem. Making an online store is also difficult, but for me it’s not so interesting from the point of view of broadening my horizons. In industry, I am inspired by the proximity to processes and amazing visualization: you see the result of your work.
— What are the most interesting cases and problems specific to the industrial sector that you have had to solve?
— All digital transformation projects at EVRAZ can be divided into two main tasks: increasing production safety and increasing efficiency. For example, in some places they reduced the cost of manufacturing a steel billet, in another project they increased the volume of production of suitable products. As they say at the plants, additional cars have arrived. So there is an effect! You can even touch it. This feature seriously affects the motivation of the team.
Many interesting cases are related to the use of AI. For example, intelligent video analytics to assess the percentage of slag in the ladle and the quality of the workpiece. Using AI, we were able to achieve 99.98% accuracy and a low false positive rate. The neural network misses defects only in 0.02% of cases. Of course, thanks to this, the quality of the product has increased. In addition, we received an objective analysis tool. The system helps a person to detect deviations and prompts about this in a timely manner, which increases the yield. If there are defective workpieces one after another, it means that somewhere at the previous stage the technical process was disrupted, and colleagues need to be informed about this.
Well, by the way, about online stores. We are developing them too. For example, internal marketplace for supplies on 1C + Bitrix. It was necessary to organize interaction between all participants in the process. About 1.5 thousand employees, called applicants, are involved in purchases. As a rule, these are responsible persons from their structural divisions.
In fact, if we systematize our projects, we do everything:
basic automation and production accounting (IoT in all forms: monitoring and diagnostic systems, robotics and autonomous equipment, drones);
fundamental models of technical processes that recommend optimal parameters;
video analytics and computer vision;
We develop and support corporate information systems, including mobile development, basic and advanced analytics.
Thanks to this, you can always find a project to your liking.
— How does working in an IT company differ from IT in industry? What are the specifics and features of the stack?
— Historically, manufacturing companies have been considered slow and bureaucratic. And this was true before. But now leadership in metallurgy is impossible without digitalization. Therefore, all our engineers already know how or are learning to work with prompts, generative AI and other systems. IT is the engine of metallurgy, without which the development of the industry is impossible.
The year is 2024, and all IT specialists in industry have long had remote work, a modern stack and flexible development methodologies Agile/Scrum through POC with MVP and mandatory QA, DevOps. To move quickly, both our company and everyone else live in these paradigms.
A feature of large IT in production is the presence of a lower level of automation of technological processes (APCS – its own world within IT), Scada/MES production management systems. Next come corporate systems, application software, machine learning guidance systems, and AI analytics. When they ask me where is IT in production, I say – everywhere.
The development process itself has long been aligned with software companies. That is, manufacturing companies transformed a little later, but the processes with other companies in the IT sector are practically no different. It makes no difference whether you work in a production company or in an Internet company/marketplace. The processes from a development point of view will be the same.
The stack is similar. We rarely write in Delphi (*sarcasm*). We have a modern stack for developing internal applications: frontend in React, backend in Python/C#. We use Kafka/Rabbit. Infrastructure – on containers.
The databases, like everyone else, were on MS SQL Server, Oracle. Now we are switching to Postgres. Analytical databases we use are Greenplum and ClickHouse. In principle, it seems that the stack is optimal now.
— What about bureaucracy? It is believed that there is a lot of it in industry. This is true?
– Everything is relative. Bureaucracy should be at a level that allows you to move quickly, but at the same time does not turn everything around into chaos. Even startups have a minimum set of simple rules.
— In classic IT companies they are used to cookies, smoothies, remote work and the ability to wear a hoodie to the office. Are there any major differences in the industry regarding dress codes and lack of cookies?
— EVRAZ has remote work and hybrid work, when you need to come to the office once a week. The team has developers from different geographies – from Kaliningrad to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. If they are unable to come to the office, they work remotely all the time. It's not a problem.
The need for smoothies lately seems to me to be overrated. We don’t have a dress code as such. I don't know where this myth comes from. The office is modern and comfortable. There is no console, but a visit to the production facility can overshadow the impressions of the most exciting game.
— Why are there so few industry IT events: conferences, meetups, and so on? Or does it just seem that way?
— I don’t know why there are few of them, but now there is definitely a request for intersectoral communication. For example, metallurgists want to communicate with chemists, gold miners, miners and vice versa… At the same time, we can conduct benchmarks, look at archetypes of solutions, a map of case coverage for our production processes.
It’s always useful to learn from experience and see how another company solved a particular problem. What do they have with bureaucracy, planning, implementation deadlines, regulatory requirements, technology stack.
And now on Industrial++ We will finally have the opportunity to communicate, exchange experiences, talk about processes and get inspired.
— Why is it worth going to work in industry? What can you get there that you can’t get in an online store or development studio?
— Basically, we are no different in terms of stack and processes. It’s not scary to come to us: the same Agile, the same daily activities 🙂 But at the same time, we have a physical connection to the production process. You can always see the results, touch them, go on a tour of the plant, look at the unit and the results of your project live.
You will be immersed in problems at the intersection of physics, chemistry and other processes. You will not just write code, but will plunge into processes to understand the essence of the task. It is very exciting.
— Tell me, please, are the IT specialists at the factory and the IT specialists at the marketplace different IT specialists? Are they significantly different?
— IT people have not been different for a long time, only customers in production are more pragmatic and realistic.
— What drives you most in industry? So much so that you have remained in this field for five years?
— Since 2021, we have been implementing a large digital transformation program – about 100 projects a year. Most solutions are based on machine learning models and artificial intelligence technologies. It was interesting to launch all this. This is a great experience in building systems from scratch for complex, non-trivial tasks.
And many manufacturing companies also have a fairly long production chain. It begins with the extraction of raw materials – ore or coal. This is followed by the processing of these raw materials, enrichment and preparation of intermediate products for the next processing stage, production of cast iron, steel billets, and finally ends with the rolling of the finished product, for example, reinforcement, metal beams or rails. Then these products are sold through specialized marketplaces.
This means that there is always room to move within the company, and there are various opportunities for horizontal growth. The width of the production chain allows you to move between projects and departments, and you never get bored. Everyone chooses a task that is more interesting to them, and thanks to this they constantly develop.
If you are interested in learning more about IT in industry or you are already there and want to communicate with colleagues, come to the new Ontiko conference Industrial++ in Moscow on October 21 and 22, 2024.
