Steel and Heavy Manufacturing industries face unique and complex challenges requiring specialized expertise. Timenow has compiled and answered the most commonly asked questions about challenges, technologies, and best practices in asset management in the pulp and paper industry. Feel confident in your project management partner and explore how Timenow’s tailored, collaborative approach can deliver measurable results for your team.
What are the challenges for Asset Management in the context of steel and heavy industry mills, and how is Timenow involved?
Asset management in steel and heavy industry mills faces unique challenges due to complex operations, significant capital is tied up in physical assets, and operating conditions are often quite demanding. While many issues are common across asset-heavy industries, they are often more pronounced in steel where we see extreme environments that accelerate asset degradation through heat and chemical exposure. In addition, severe wear in hard-to-reach locations, rigid processes that can’t easily adapt to new technologies, and mounting pressure to decarbonize, as the industry accounts for 7–9% of global energy-related emissions.
Timenow addresses these challenges with end-to-end EAM/CMMS solutions, predictive maintenance, and RAM analysis to strengthen reliability and safety. Our STO management and digital tools, including TimeConnect and iRoutes, reduce costly downtime, streamline inspections, and deliver real-time visibility. Supported by strategic advisory and ISO 55000 alignment, Timenow empowers you to boost efficiency, adapt to changing steel market demands, and advance sustainability goals.
How AI (Artificial Intelligence), IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), Machine Learning, and Big Data are impacting Asset Management in the context of steel and heavy industry mills, and how is Timenow leveraging them?
Emerging technologies are transforming asset management in steel and heavy industry mills, enabling a shift from reactive to proactive operations in three key ways:
- Predictive and Data-Driven Maintenance
AI, IIoT, and machine learning use real-time sensor data to forecast failures, optimize maintenance, reduce downtime, extend equipment life, and improve safety. - Operational Efficiency and Optimization
Digital asset management and IIoT tools identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, improve coordination, and optimize energy use, which can boost cost savings, agility, and sustainability under growing decarbonization pressures. - Safety and Risk Management
Digital inspection systems reduce human error, support proactive hazard identification, and ensure compliance, critical in high-risk, high-temperature steel environments.
Timenow leverages these technologies to tackle industry-specific challenges with end-to-end solutions, including cloud-based EAM/CMMS, optimized inspection routes, RAM analysis, and STO management. With tools like iRoutes and TimeConnect, and ISO 55000-aligned strategies, we help steel producers reduce downtime, boost reliability, and achieve sustainable, data-driven performance.
Why are generational shifts and the shortage of skilled workforce hitting asset management so hard and specifically in steel and heavy industry mills, and how does Timenow help its clients overcome these challenges?
We’re seeing that generational shifts and a shortage of skilled workers in steel mills leads to the loss of critical institutional knowledge, succession challenges, and inconsistent maintenance practices. At the same time, we’re also seeing difficulties in attracting and training younger talent. Coupled with lack of skilled talent, outdated systems and fragmented data, create skills gaps that can lead to unreliable asset data, higher downtime, and costly emergency repairs.
Timenow addresses these challenges through comprehensive asset management solutions and technologies. We deploy Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) solutions to centralize maintenance data and standardize processes, while modern cloud-based CMMS solutions such as Timenow’s digital tool, iRoutes, facilitates data migration and offers real-time access through enabling informed decisions and proactive asset management. Another technology platform, TimeConnect, provides a real-time unified view of all project activities for seamless coordination. Critical to helping you overcome workforce skills gaps, we include comprehensive user training and ongoing support during and after system go-live, ensuring your employees are proficient in new asset management tools.
Annual outages are high-impact, risk-prone interventions in steel plants. How is Timenow’s expertise in project management a game changer?
Annual outages in steel plants are high-impact, risk-prone interventions because of the harsh operating environments and high-temperature processes, and downtime can have a significant financial impact.
Timenow’s expertise in project management, particularly through its Shutdown, Turnaround & Outage (STO) Planning and Management services, can be a game-changer for our steel clients by adding greater control to these challenging interventions. This is achieved through meticulous planning and scheduling, robust project controls & real-time monitoring, and proactive risk mitigation and cost controls. We also leverage advanced methodologies like AGILE and bring a team of experts with extensive industry experience to anticipate challenges and deliver tailored, effective solutions. In addition, Timenows’s proprietary TimeConnect platform provides a unified view of all project activities, critical path intersections, alerts, and alarms, centralizing information, and enhancing communication and decision-making across all stakeholders. This integrated approach helps you overcome the inherent complexities and risks of annual outages of your steel plant, and drives operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and timely project delivery.
How does Timenow collaborate with internal maintenance and reliability teams at the mill?
At Timenow we collaborate as a partner to strengthen your steel mills’ maintenance and reliability teams using Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM). Through tools like Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), criticality analysis, and reliability modeling, we help steel clients identify risks from harsh operating environments and high-temperature processes, understand complex asset behavior, and build effective maintenance strategies to prevent corrosion and wear-related failures and improve operational performance.
The central elements of this partnership are structuring complete asset hierarchies and optimizing Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems. This provides your steel teams with accurate data, standardized maintenance routines, and enables a shift from reactive to preventive and predictive approaches, which helps in overcoming process monitoring limitations and fragmented data that hinder accurate failure prediction in steel operations.
To ensure long-term sustainability, especially with the added operational challenge of an aging workforce, Timenow delivers training, clear procedures, and standardized processes, simplifying execution and reducing dependence on individual expertise within your steel workforce. For steel industry leadership, we bring transparency through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and planning tools that align asset management with critical business objectives, such as reducing high operational costs and addressing decarbonization pressures.
By combining proven methodologies, digital solutions, and knowledge sharing, Timenow empowers steel mills to significantly increase asset utilization (uptime), extend equipment life, and improve overall reliability. In all instances, we craft a solution that fits your process.
What results have steel & heavy manufacturing clients achieved by partnering with Timenow on Asset Management initiatives?
By partnering with Timenow on Asset Management initiatives, our steel manufacturing clients have achieved significant improvements in operational efficiency and realized measurable cost reduction.
For example, a recent case study with a leading global steel manufacturer, who experienced significant unplanned downtime in their Hot Dip Galvanizing Line (HDGL) and Pickling Line and Tandem Cold Mill (PLTCM), returned the following results after implementing Timenow’s Reliability program:
- 30% reduction in unplanned downtime across HDGL and PLTCM production lines.
- 25% decrease in annual maintenance costs, despite an initial investment in predictive technologies.
- Extended equipment life for critical components, which helped to defer major capital expenses.
- Improved safety performance due to fewer emergency maintenance situations.
- Enhanced production quality as a result of more consistent equipment performance.
We attribute these successes to the systematic application of Reliability principles, particularly the rigorous use of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to identify and address potential failures proactively. This approach transformed the manufacturer’s maintenance function from a cost center into a strategic contributor to operational excellence. Timenow’s solution for this client included Asset Hierarchy Development, Criticality Analysis, FMEA, and Reliability-centered Maintenance (RCM) Implementation.
How does pricing work for asset management projects with Timenow?
Every project for our steel industry clients is priced based on their unique operational needs. Factors like scope, from targeted optimizations for high-temperature processes to full-scale Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)/Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) implementations, along with steel plant size, project timelines, and the level of team involvement, all shape the investment. We have found that the use of digital tools and specific goals such as improving asset reliability, ensuring regulatory compliance, or reducing unplanned downtime also influence costs.
What makes Timenow stand out is the assertiveness of our solutions: by applying proven methodologies like Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) with precision, we deliver faster and more accurate results that are critical for steel operations. This ultimately makes projects more cost-effective. We leverage proprietary technologies developed in-house, such as the TimeConnect platform, which not only optimizes local steel workforce performance but also enables the use of remote resources, drastically reducing implementation and maintenance costs for the latest asset management practices.
Over the years, Timenow has gathered numerous success stories worldwide, including in the Mining & Metals sector, and we are always happy to share our history and results with new steel clients. Our focus is to ensure that every solution is tailored, competitive, and capable of generating measurable returns, such as increased uptime and extended equipment life for steel mills.