Software support for quality control in coal and coke production in OKD, a.s.

The paper deals with quality control in the production of coal and coke in OKD, a. s., which is the main producer of black coal and coke in the Czech Republic. With the market environment and competition from Poland, China, and other suppliers and with increasing customer needs for accurate compliance with required quality, OKD is forced to pay greater attention to quality control. At present, quality control requires information support which significantly affects the results obtained and thus the economics of coal and coke production and sales. In the past decade, IT support for quality control has gradually developed from simple accounting-like applications into sophisticated information systems. These systems allow online control of coal quality parameters during production. They are linked to the control systems in laboratories and integrated into the global information system for the sales and dispatch of coal and coke in OKD. In this way, the information support allows the utilization of more advanced methods of planning, production optimization, and accurate fulfillment of the contract requirements on the supplied products. As a result, the efficiency and economics of coal and coke production has been significantly improved. The team of our institute cooperates with OKD and contributes both directly to the development of information support for quality control and indirectly by training professionals who are able to design and implement solutions in this area. The article presents an overview of the current state of information systems for quality control and presents the challenges to be solved in this area.