AL Circle Blog

The year 2025 has only just begun and it’s already been coined as “the year of AI Agents” on LinkedIn. Many new startups popped out of the ground, promising to deploy autonomous agents to make smart technological and business decisions. For aluminium manufacturing this translates to having autonomous agents that integrate with control systems and […]

Over the years, working with data as an engineer in the aluminium industry, I encountered my share of problems. The impact of these problems ranged from missed deadlines to failed projects. Five common data problems stood out in particular. 1. Data silos The different departments of any aluminium manufacturing plant have their own data systems. […]

Dominance of spreadsheets I’m not exaggerating when spreadsheets have been the de facto tool for number crunching in aluminium manufacturing. Whether it’s a budget forecast, a process calculation, or a metal chemical composition, a spreadsheet is usually the format for storing and sharing both the data and the calculation logic. Why are spreadsheets so popular? […]

I stumbled into the aluminium rather by accident. My first job in an aluminium smelter: As I was driving on the highway through the Alps on a snowboarding trip, I passed a large aluminium plant by the little French town Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. At that time, I was an Erasmus student looking for an industrial internship to […]