LKAB, Creative Optimization and Digital Tvilling in collaboration for optimization of LKAB’s entire value chain. By 2025, the work will result in the optimization of the entire value chain across organizational, structural and geographical boundaries.

LKAB is one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore pellets and fines for the steel industry and a very important industry in Sweden. In 2021, the production volume was 26.7 Mt with a net turnover of SEK 48.8 billion. LKAB extracts approximately 80% of all iron ore within the EU from the mines in Kiruna, Malmberget and Svappavaara.

LKAB’s value chain, like many of today’s flows, is distributed and complex. New challenges and high goals therefore require optimization of this entire value chain across both organizational, structural and geographical boundaries. To achieve this, LKAB, Creative Optimization and Digital Tvilling have initiated a project around intelligent digital twin – Hugin & Munin.

– In order to continue to be a world leader, we need to work with our innovative power and future in a systematic way. Hugin & Munin looks ahead to how we will plan and manage tomorrow’s logistics flows. – Linda Bjurholt, Logistics manager and CEO LKAB Malmtrafik.

“We are very much looking forward to working together in the development of future logistics solutions. Steel production is a socially critical and necessary activity where together we will contribute to sustainable solutions,” says Filip Åsblom CTO at Digital Tvilling AB.

The common purpose of the work is to develop an intelligent digital twin for planning and coordinating the entire value chain. We call the intelligent digital twin Hugin & Munin based on the Old Norse mythology where the god Odin’s ravens Hugin and Munin who tell Odin daily what is happening in the world. Hugin and Munin respectively mean “thought” (planning model) and “memory” (data).

“The project will show how the industry can use advanced optimization and real-time data to create better decision-making throughout the value chain. We see this as a great opportunity to, together with Digital Tvilling and LKAB, develop the decision support system of the future,” says Erik Rönnqvist COO at Creative Optimization.

The project will be partially financed by Vinnova through the call Advanced and innovative digitization 2022. In the justification for the decision, Vinnova emphasizes that the project describes an important challenge with high potential, driven by industrial needs. The project has a clear sustainability profile, the consortium is credible and the project plan is thoroughly worked out.