Case Study: Nucor Steel achieves near-elimination of downtime and 2–5% productivity gains with Wonderware West

Steel Industry Leader Revolutionizes Production with Wonderware

Nucor Steel’s Berkeley, South Carolina mill, which produces more than 2.5 million tons of rolled sheet steel and 1 million tons of beams annually, faced frequent equipment disruptions, rapid process changes, and limited data-trending/centralization across its electric arc furnaces. To boost capacity, flexibility and process visibility while leveraging existing InTouch HMI investments, Nucor engaged Wonderware West and implemented Wonderware System Platform together with Wonderware Historian and Wonderware InTouch HMI.

Wonderware West centralized furnace data, provided standardized application objects for faster engineering, and delivered advanced trending and thin‑client visualization, enabling quicker equipment additions and more sophisticated control strategies. The solution eliminated downtime (yielding a 2–5% productivity increase), produced a 5–10% gain in average voltage (directly tied to productivity), reduced equipment integration time from days to minutes, and improved reporting and predictive maintenance for measurable capacity and quality gains.

Nucor Steel

Mike Higgins

Level 2 Automation Engineer