This week at Metal Connect, we, the hosts Denis Gontcharov and Luke van Enkhuizen, had a conversation about digital transformation in the aluminum industry.

We delved deeper into Denis’s journey from an aluminum process engineer to a data consultant and the unique challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in this sector. If your current challenge is navigating digital transformation in the aluminum industry, then listen to this episode when you have a moment.

Topics

• Introduction to the Smart Metals Podcast
• 📊 Denis Gontcharov’s background in aluminum and data
• 🚀 Challenges in digital transformation
• 🌐 Importance of Unified Namespace (UNS)
• 🛠️ Practical steps for digital transformation
• Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Notable Quotes:

1. “My background can be summarized in two words: data and aluminum. I began my career as a process engineer in aluminum smelting and then transitioned to a data-focused role at companies like Novelis, a world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling.” – Denis Gontcharov
2. “The most challenging aspect is aligning all the stakeholders. It’s not just about getting OT and IT to work together, but also involving the business, accounting, and everyone else. This coordination has proven to be quite difficult.” – Denis Gontcharov
3. “When you start implementing your digital transformation strategy, you often face initial challenges when gathering data. Companies frequently get stuck in ‘pilot purgatory,’ where they have numerous pilot projects that can’t scale across different plants due to non-uniform digital infrastructure.” – Denis Gontcharov
4. “It’s crucial to demonstrate value, meaning you need to show that your use cases lead to concrete cost savings or increased revenue. The outcome of your first project should be a clear financial estimate of the cost savings or additional revenue it generated.” – Denis Gontcharov
5. “Unified Namespace is a philosophy, a real-time snapshot of your business and a central repository of all your data. The way you build your unified namespace depends on your company. One solution I really like is provided by the German company United Manufacturing Hub.” – Denis Gontcharov

• Follow the show
• About Denis Gontcharov
• About Luke van Enkhuizen