Flexible software lowers industry costs
The adaptable software is designed for Hot Rolling Mills, but it could be applied in many industries that have automated production processes. Currently, when new mills for rolling metal are built, software for the automated process is written from scratch for each new mill. The REFORM system (Reusable Framework for Hot Rolling Mills) instead keeps a basic template of semi-finished software that is then customised to individual mills. This substantially reduces software development costs by up to 60% and also shortens the time-to-market for products from a new mill. The system of flexible software could readily be applied to other similar industries, such as paper rolling, and the principle could be utilised in many other automated industries.
