A year to forget, from the productive point of view, would have been enough to discourage any effort within the Stainless Steel Company (ACINOX Las Tunas). However, this mishap did not prevent the plant, key for the economy in the territory, from getting much closer to the integral management of its scientific flow.

ORGANIZING COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

A long tradition of innovation in science and technology forums, Youth Technical Brigades (BTJ, in Spanish), and even in individual initiatives would lead one to believe that there was not much to change in the way science was done there. But reality showed that it was necessary to move towards an integral vision of what we were doing, says Doctor of Applied Sciences Guillermo González Yero. The confirmation, he adds, came when the first innovation test, applied by GESIME, the top organization of business management of the Iron and Steel Industry, certified them with the "In Development" stage, far from their aspirations.

Faced with this, he says, in March 2020 they created the Innovation and Development Group, a structure that became a vital gear to give coherence to the traditional inventiveness born among their workers and technicians. After this forum, they established priorities and the urgent synergy between the different areas of the plant to evaluate the most urgent and feasible demands from the economic point of view. Thus, explains the main specialist of this group, what was previously done separately and with a certain degree of improvisation, acquired a more organic and coherent sense.

Master of Science Yucel Borges Escobar, director of the Quality, Technology, and Development business unit, says that getting all areas to talk to each other was a crucial decision that soon proved effective. "Previously, everyone thought on their own and established their bank of problems. Now, when we think about it together, we identify what demands are really necessary and what can, in turn, solve common or pressing difficulties." This process of identifying needs has already been carried out twice and they intend to do it every year, he says.

Guillermo clarifies that it has not been an easy undertaking, since they had to overcome the natural reluctance; but, he says, "the workers' acceptance prevails, understanding that what we are promoting is to organize collective intelligence among all of us". A concrete example of this fruitful dialogue, he says, took place when the Steel Mill and the Maintenance area confronted their respective problems. "They sat down together, with the participation of the Environment, Safety and Occupational Health and Safety colleagues, and they discussed them together."

After the conciliation stage, the proposals for improvements are submitted to a technical advisory board, headed by the general manager, which determines the priorities based on the actual availability of resources. This evaluation - Guillermo insists - "is what makes it possible for us to make more efficient use of what is available, despite the shortages.

HANDS-ON WORK, AND WORKS IN THE HANDS

Such scientific analyses and projections of the last two years have already provided ACINOX Las Tunas with six projects for the practical application of science to solve its problems. Two of them even have ministerial rank, due to the impact they would have on the Cuban Iron and Steel Industry (GESIME).

The first one foresees the use of the residues from the nickel and chromium beneficiation process, together with the mining-metallurgical companies of the province of Holguin. If this initiative - which will require the creation of a joint venture with foreign participation - is carried out, it would provide the local factory with a sufficient amount of raw materials to free it from its current dependence on metallic scrap.

The other project plans the improvement of the current procedures for the evacuation of slag (white and black) within the steel plant; if this is achieved, it will not only allow the eventual use of these residues in various uses for the construction materials industry; it would also eliminate the obstacles that it generates today, to the point of forcing the stoppage of the entire production process.

Other purposes have a business scope but are equally important for ACINOX Las Tunas. This is the case of their aspirations to build a processing plant for white slag, which would allow them to use it as construction material in a safe way for workers and the environment.

Previous strategies have taken another turn with the changes occurring in the styles of doing science within the steelworks of the Balcony of Eastern Cuba. This is what has happened with the Advanced Automation in Steel Processing and Refining project, which started here at the end of 2018 in conjunction with several Cuban universities and research centers.

In 2021, details DSc. González Yero, the project advanced with seven publications in national and international scientific journals. One of them, he exemplifies, presented a result that he qualifies as very interesting since he developed a method for the calculation of the sound processing index in the electric arc furnace, which allows estimating the efficiency of its operation and then using that information in real-time to make decisions. That, he says, is an estimate made today through the intuition or experience of the furnace operators.

By 2022, Advanced Automation in Steelmaking and Refining will be realized with the application of six solutions in the electric arc furnace, which will have a direct influence on the energy efficiency of a station that is the heart of the steelmaking process. Additionally, it will raise the scientific degree of the technical force involved inside and outside the factory. "That is another of its values," says Guillermo.

IT IS POSSIBLE

During the last calendar year, a total of 163 works of technical science forums and Youth Technical Brigades (BTJ) received some category of recognition, which translated into a total remuneration of 150,000 pesos for the company's workers. It is a figure that is far from what they expect in the company and that could go up to the extent that this historical innovative movement is strengthened by the renewed channels of science and with the application of the new regulations approved by the Cuban Government so that scientific creation is directly expressed in the income of those who exercise it.

"We all have to identify science as our goal," says the general director of ACINOX Las Tunas, Master of Science Eraldo González Arias. The category of Innovative Company, delivered in the most recent GESIME test, confirmed that they are on the right track.

This year, the company faces the challenge of returning to the path of productive success, says González Arias. The nation's financial and energy shortage will keep it below 140 thousand tons of steel. However, he is optimistic that it will be possible to reach 40 thousand tons of corrugated bars.

We will have to honor the commitment made with the Commander of the Revolution and Vice Prime Minister Ramiro Valdés to successfully venture into the production of alloy and special steels. "This year, he insists, will also be the year of consolidation of the changes that occurred after the Ordering Task and the productive linkages with other companies, to provide an outlet for our secondary productions". Each of these goals, he concludes, cannot be achieved if we do not advance along the path of science.

If the villagers of the medieval Spanish village in that play understood that only unity would lead them to victory, in the local steel company they have understood that to put their scientific potential in better conditions to solve their concrete difficulties they must say the same thing: "All together!