MECHANIK NR 1/2017  Methods of improving production processes in the metal industry Metody usprawniania procesów produkcyjnych w branży metalowej Katarzyna Łyp-Wrońska Łukasz Wzorek Kamil Jamróz * DOI:https://doi.org/10.17814/mechanik.2017.1.17 In the current economic situation, enterprises which want increase your position on market, use some methods of improving production processes, the paper presents some of them for example management systems, normalization and automatization. KEYWORDS: metal industry, improving production, management systems, production processes Companies in the market can be assigned to specific industries and sectors. The metal industry is one of the most dynamically developing sector in Poland. Organizations operating in this industry are involved in the manufacture of metals, the manufacture of finished metal products and the manufacture of machinery and equipment. In the metal industry, companies that employ up to 9 employees are the majority - these make up about 91%. Companies employing between 10 and 49 employees account for 6% of the entities [1]. This means that small and medium-sized companies dominate within metal industry in Poland. These companies are in constant close co-operation with automotive, construction and household appliances companies. Metal industry is an important part of the economy in many countries, because natural resources such as metal ore occur in specific locations in a limited quantity. Hence the increasing share of metal production is being recycled. For example, the share of aluminum production in the total world production of this element in 1986 was 17%, in 2004 33%, but it is estimated that 40% in 2020 [2]. Based on the possibility of practically complete recovery of raw material from metal waste, a closed economy model was proposed. To fully understand the essence of metal industry, first define what metal is. One of the main distinguishing features of metals is the presence of metallic binding [3], the consequence of which is, among others, high electrical and thermal conductivity [4]. This makes metals the foundation of the electrical, electronic and power industries [5]. Another feature of materials with this non-directional bonding is plasticity and kinkiness, making it possible to form metal products and build energy-absorbing structures [3]. Examples of the use of this metal feature can be bumpers or kinetic energy absorbing components of vehicle collisions. In general, the metal industry can be _______ * Dr inż. Katarzyna Łyp-Wrońska (klyp@agh.edu.pl), dr inż. Łukasz Wzorek (lukasz.wzorek@agh.edu.pl), inż. Kamil Jamróz – AGH Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza w Krakowie divided into the non-ferrous metal industry and iron and its alloys (fig. 1) [6]. In the case of the iron and its alloys market, depending on the carbon content, the castings should be distinguished together with the steel, i.e. the plastified steel and the cast iron. Steel is made up of, among others, structures of buildings or their reinforcement, rails or sheets of plating for vehicles. Examples of the use of cast iron are bodies of industrial machines. Fig 1. Metal industry division (source: own study based on: [6]) Steel market Steel market is an important element of the metal industry. Countries with the most prosperous economies in the world dominate in the production of crude steel. In recent years, most crude steel is produced by China and Japan, indicating the dominance of Asian countries, while the third largest country is located outside of Asia, i.e. the USA [7]. Poland, on the background of these countries, is worse off, as the table shows: Table. Summary of steel production volume in 2009-2013 Country Production volume in thousand tons in 2009 2010r. 2011 2012 2013 China 577 070 638 743 701 968 731 040 821 990 Japan 87 534 109 599 107 601 107 232 110 595 Poland 7 128 7 993 8 801 8 358 7 950 Source: Own study based on: [8].