In the beginning of the project the requirements of the two pilot cases were defined. The results included the definition of the use cases for both the copper and steel pilots, definition of future users, their objectives and tasks by the application of the social innovation methodology. In addition, key performance indicators for impact evaluation were defined for pilot processes as well as for the social point of view. To facilitate adoption and improve impact on operator work user acceptance factors were also studied and became part of the co-creation process of developers and users.
A generic architecture for the system was designed, and necessary data pre-processing methods and module-specific analysis methods for the information flows were defined. The architecture is based on an asynchronous loosely-coupled data-driven and event-driven message bus architecture. Methods for evaluating data quality, pre-process data as well as tools and methods for feature extraction were developed. The work was demonstrated with prototype implementations of COCOP system.
The work done on process modelling contained the development of simulation models that were needed in pilot cases. The unit processes were modeled both for scheduling and for advisory tool purposes. Many of the models were developed from the beginning but others were based on existing models. For the copper case, an advisory system and scheduling prototype was developed. For the steel case, models were developed to predict the castability in the secondary metallurgy, to predict the temperature and the shell thickness evolution in a continuous casting, to predict the temperature of the billet before the continuous rolling mill and to predict the generation of surface defects in the final product. The coordination optimisation was used to optimise converter batch schedules in the copper case and, for the steel case, to find a good combination of values for the key defect-related parameters that minimize the generation of defects at the final product.
A dissemination strategy was defined and implemented with the goal of increasing the visibility of the COCOP project on selected target groups to ensure the maximum impact of the project and promote the exploitation of the project results. Main results of these activities are: the webpage of the project (www.cocop-spire.eu) including a blog; the presence of the project in social networks; the presentation of the COCOP project in scientific and trade journals, scientific conferences and special interest group events, with sixteen scientific papers published during the project; and the organization of joint workshops.
The identification of the exploitation results was a continuous activity. At the end of the project, the consortium defined ten exploitation results (related to methodologies, open-source software, or specific tools developed during the project) and two key exploitation results:
- Steel Advisory Tool for surface defects reduction: a steel manufacturing plant-wide monitoring and advisory platform to reduce the number of surface and sub-surface defects at the final product, ensuring a good performance of the related sub-processes (secondary metallurgy, continuous casting and hot rolling).
- Copper smelter optimization tool: plant-wide optimization tool for copper smelter operating flash smelting furnace, Peirce-Smith converters and slag cleaning and anode furnaces.
Österwalder's methodology was used for studying potential business models and business environment for these two key results. Finally, a transferability assessment of the COCOP concept to other sectors (Wastewater Treatment, Chemical and Glass Manufacturing sectors) was performed. The COCOP adaptation workflow guideline includes a Digital Maturity Analysis and Human Factors Milestones starting from feasibility evaluation, continuing to implementation, and an action plan showing the status of fulfilling user requirements at different stages of the project.
