A Drift Handling Approach for Self-Adaptive ML Software in Scalable Industrial Processes

Abstract: Most industrial processes in real-world manufacturing applications are characterized by the scalability property, which requires an automated strategy to self-adapt ML software systems to the new conditions. In this paper, we investigate an Electroslag Remelting (ESR) use case process from the Uddeholms AB steel company. The use case involves predicting the minimum pressure value for a vacuum pumping event. Taking into account the long time required to collect new records and efficiently integrate the new machines with the built ML software system. Additionally, to accommodate the changes and satisfy the non-functional requirement of the software system, namely adaptability, we propose an automated and adaptive approach based on a drift handling technique called importance weighting. The aim is to address the problem of adding a new furnace to production and enable the adaptability attribute of the ML software. The overall results demonstrate the improvements in ML software performance achieved by implementing the proposed approach over the classical non-adaptive approach.