“Covacsis covers the entire aluminium value stream, from bauxite to alumina to downstream aluminium products,” Tarun Mishra, Founder, Covacsis

Tarun is the founder of Covacsis Technologies and was among the first few in the world to envisage the transformation of the current manufacturing system into algorithmic manufacturing as a next-generation manufacturing reality. 

Today, Covacsis is a leader in industry-based digital transformational solutions in India. Covacsis' IPF is helping the process industry increase productivity and reduce costs by using data and algorithms specifically developed for the process industry.

As an alumnus of IIT Bombay, Tarun's love for writing and his musical talent on the drum set are just a few facets of his multifaceted personality. More importantly, he is deeply committed to creating employment opportunities for the weaker strata of society, a testament to his social engagement and compassion.

AL Circle: Can you provide an overview of Covacsis and its core mission? What inspired its founding, and how has the company evolved over the years?

Tarun Mishra: Covacsis believes that algorithms will drive the future of the manufacturing industry. Day-to-day operational management of the shop floor, covering asset reliability to production quality, conversion cost, energy efficiency, and sustainability metrics, will be measured and optimised by intelligent algorithms in real-time without manual interventions.

That’s the end state Covacsis has been working for. We have deployed our Intelligent Plant FrameworkTM in bauxite refinery and calciner to optimise the quality of alumina at the reduced energy cost.

Likewise several use cases in downstream aluminium for example FO reduction in furnace, Improving quality compliance of aluminium coil, Cold roll productivity enhancement, Energy reduction in Annealing furnaces have been successfully achieved using Covacsis’ platform and algorithms across leading producers.

Cisco and Thermax are two enterprise investors in Covacsis to have given right confidence to market about Covacsis’ technological prowess and digital transformational capability of the platform.

More than a million devices are connected to the Covacsis platform to be analysed in real-time and enhance their operational capability.

Covacsis, besides aluminium, is strongly present in the steel, cement, chemical, pharmaceutical, and FMCG industries and works with the best companies in India and the world.

Gartner, the leading research company globally, has rated Covacsis as the best Industry 4.0 and digital platform globally for four consecutive years. 

AL Circle: How does Covacsis position itself within the aluminium industry, and what sets it apart from competitors?

Tarun Mishra: Covacsis covers the entire aluminium value stream, from bauxite to alumina to downstream aluminium products (ingots, coils, foils, billets, rods, fasteners). Our platform addresses key challenges around productivity, quality, cost, energy, safety, and environment across the value stream.

Most importantly, the entire plant's end-to-end implementation of Covacsis' platform takes less than ten weeks. Disparate sets of PLCs across multiple machines and equipment are connected in a matter of days or a couple of weeks.

Covacsis platform also offers off-the-shelf domain specific algorithms which can be implemented as per the technology, equipment and L0/L1 capability of the plant. End user can change/modify the logic of KPIs, Analytics at their wish and will with Do-it-yourself tool kit.

The solution's maturity and effectiveness guarantee users' ROI. This is why Covacsis also runs various gain-sharing programs in the market.

AL Circle: Can you elaborate on Covacsis' key technologies and solutions offered to the aluminium industry?

Tarun Mishra: Covacsis offers the following solutions through its real-time IPF platform –

• Specific Surface Area optimisation - Process parameters optimisation in Bayer and Calciner process to ensure the desired specific surface area of alumina from the kiln
• Specific energy reduction in refinery and kiln
• Ball mill efficiency improvement
• Improving Anode efficiency in smelter
• Optimisation of the baking process to improve anode quality
• FO consumption in the furnace
• Slab/Coil/Billet quality prediction
• Cold roll mill throughput improvement
• Energy optimisation in Annealing furnace
• End-to-end batch/coil/slab tracking
• Safety signals
• Golden batch analysis
• Real-time alerts & notifications to users

AL Circle: What has been the impact of analytics in the most challenging terrain of bauxite mining and alumina refining for making the sector more data-driven and real-time calculative in terms of ROI?

Tarun Mishra: The Covacsis algorithm for SSA prediction in alumina refineries helped a leading refinery reduce “Slide” incidents in the kiln by 75-80%. Moreover, it improved SSA consistency for better quality.

AL Circle: How does Covacsis' Real-Time Performance Management System (RT-PMS) enhance the operational efficiency of aluminium plants?

Tarun Mishra: Covacsis Intelligent Plant Framework offers a real-time performance measurement and management system.

IPF acquires process, operational, product, energy, and quality data online from plant machinery, quality equipment, Cranes, and Energy meters automatically and autonomously without any human intervention.

Covacsis platform ingests millions of data points per second across aluminium value stream for real time performance measurement.

Real-time performance algorithms compute the KPIs in real-time and do the deviation analysis against the benchmark.

Any deviation is recorded, analysed, and reported to multiple stakeholders based on their roles and policies.

A detailed RCA, Advanced Analytics suite is available to every users to do a rapid RCA in seconds and minutes.

AL Circle: What role does data analytics play in your solutions, and how do you leverage it to drive improvements in aluminium manufacturing processes?

Tarun Mishra: Data analytics plays the most important role in offering tangible value to the industry. Covacsis’ IPF core proposition is end-user analytics on a real-time basis.

Data is continuously churned and offers real-time analytics based on process, technology, and operational design. Every department, such as production, quality, engineering, safety, and costing, gets complete analytics minute by minute and on an aggregated basis as the users desire.

The algorithm analyses minute-by-minute variability in any KPIs and automatically finds the root cause behind the variability. Any deviation is then reported to appropriate stakeholders to ensure the right action.

Sometimes, a close-loop decision ensures that the right command is sent to the PLC to optimise the interdependent parameters, too.

AL Circle: What challenges do aluminium manufacturers face in adopting digital solutions, and how does Covacsis help them overcome?

Tarun Mishra: Aluminium manufacturers face challenges when adopting digital solutions, but Covacsis helps them overcome:

 

• Envisioning the digital transformation
• Low-cost resilient and cyber security compliant data pipeline
• OT- IT network
• Implementation of the platform without any SI’s involvement
• Functional mapping
• Digital adoption and change management

AL Circle: How does Covacsis' technology support sustainability and environmental goals within the aluminium industry? Can you explain how your solutions have helped aluminium plants reduce their carbon footprint or optimise resource usage?

Tarun Mishra: The Covacsis platform has helped the company reduce FO consumption in aluminium furnaces by 50% and energy consumption by 45%, significantly impacting the environment and their carbon footprint.