A global data platform to enable AI, innovation and better business decisions

Outokumpu is a global sustainable stainless steel manufacturer with 8,700 employees spread across production facilities in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. The industry leader in sustainability is determined to leverage data and AI to continuously improve the quality of its products and optimise its operations for efficiency.

Siloed data, unnecessarily high costs, and speed of innovation as drivers towards modern data intelligence platform

Outokumpu’s previous data platforms faced several challenges. Outdated technologies and disjointed procedures resulted in repetitive manual tasks and separate data silos and limited its effectiveness. These issues drove up costs, slowed data development, and eroded trust in data.

There was a clear need to automate the merging of data from various sources with a future-proofed data platform that improves developer experience, enhances artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, and provides modern data scientist tools.

Essentially, Outokumpu’s data scientists recognised the need for a data lakehouse for uniting, developing, deploying, sharing, and scaling enterprise data, analytics, and AI solutions. A data lakehouse combines the low-cost storage of a data lake with the structure and tools of a warehouse. This makes it much easier for data teams to access and work with the most complete and up-to-date data. 

A future-proof data infrastructure for AI-based solutions

Outokumpu decided to collaborate with us because we had previously completed several data-related projects for Outokumpu, have extensive experience, and, crucially for this project, are a Databricks partner.

“Decision to establish this new global data platform opens a new era of accelerated data product and intelligent solution development at Outokumpu,” states Auli Peltola, Head of Strategic Growth at Solita.

Solita designed and built a modern, secure, and scalable data platform for a global enterprise using Databricks’ best practices, as well as input from Outokumpu’s IT and business teams. Additionally, we provided project management and implemented the architecture and the first data products.

We helped Outokumpu create guidelines for distributed data product development. The goal was to establish good governance and consistent ways of working from the start. It also boosted their confidence in using the new platform.

The new global data platform serves as the common repository for all enterprise data – marketing, production, and financial – and enables well-governed data product development, analytics, and reporting across divisions and functions.

“This fully capable technology platform will significantly speed up the time-to-market from idea to implementation,” said Joni Luomala, Data Architect and Azure Data Platform Tech Lead at Solita.

To create useful AI and machine learning solutions, data must be of high quality, well-structured, and easily accessible.

To demonstrate the power of the new technical data platform, the selected use case was a CO₂ reporting data product that is easily adaptable for productive use. This application is, of course, highly beneficial to the global leader in sustainable stainless steel.

A foundation for analytics,AI and data-driven operations

Outokumpu’s technology platform ensures that all data is accessible to the right people while maintaining security, consistency, and usability. The aim is to have data products reusable like modules for various purposes across the company, including the development of demanding and reusable intelligent solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The technology platform will also serve as the foundation for company-wide analytics and data-driven decision-making.

“With this data platform, we are building the foundation for the process of asking and answering the right questions. Now, we will be able to see patterns and connections that were previously hidden and to turn data into true value,” said Aksela.

Full visibility allows Outokumpu to improve quality or optimise processes by effectively collecting and analysing real-time production data. On a global scale, even small improvements can result in huge benefits.

“This technology platform makes it easy to create, test, and iterate new ideas. It offers both the data and the tools data teams need to experiment, see what works, and determine what adds value,” said Luomala.

“It’s an amplifier for value realisation,” concluded Aksela.