Two Pittsburgh manufacturing mainstays with more than a century in business each are doing more than dipping their toes into the latest technological game-changer, artificial intelligence.
United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) has been working with Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Foundry on the use of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation in its operations.
“We may be a 122-year-old company, but we are intensely future-focused, and we have a bias for speed,” CEO David Burritt said on last week’s second-quarter earnings conference call.
While the details of the U.S. Steel-Carnegie Foundry initiative are still to be disclosed, Burritt mentioned several AI-related projects that have saved U.S. Steel upward of $15 million a year. He touted the company’s increasing efforts in digitization as another manifestation of its future-oriented growth strategy. Burritt told investors that U.S. Steel’s digital efforts will pay off big, and already have in generative and other forms of AI.
That includes $5 million in savings in a cost-optimization algorithm to help the company purchase electricity at U.S. Steel Europe and $3 million in savings to streamline the process for carbon temperatures using data from exhaust gas sensors. AI is also saving about $4 million on natural gas in boilers as it makes efficient and uses less fuel on boilers at U.S. Steel Gary Works, and another almost $3 million in AI-spurred efficiency at its mines in Minnesota.
“These are long-term tailwinds that will provide uplift as we execute our strategic transformation to being a low cost intensive, less capital-intensive and less carbon-intensive business,” Burritt said.
And U.S. Steel isn’t the only Pittsburgh manufacturer doing this. PPG on Wednesday said it had invested $2.6 million into a center of excellence for automotive-coating color development and application in Quattordio, Italy. A big part of it will be artificial intelligence and machine learning in both quality control and the development of colors, which PPG (NYSE: PPG) said will help it reduce costs and cycle time as it creates basecoats and color products.
“With this new facility, PPG will elevate its color development to a new level, utilizing digital tools to simplify and modernize the processes,” said Federico Menta, global director, decorative business, in automotive coatings. “It is also a critical enabler to fulfill our customer expectations in terms of speed, accuracy and quality.”
