Implementation of the Just-in-Time Philosophy in Coal Production Processes as an Approach to Supporting Energy Transition and Reducing Carbon Emissions

In the context of Poland’s commitments under the European Union’s climate policy, including the European Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package, as well as the decision to ban imports of hard coal from Russia and Belarus, ensuring the stability of the domestic market for energy commodities is becoming a key challenge. The response to these needs is the Coal Platform concept developed by the KOMAG Institute of Mining Technology (KOMAG), which aims to integrate data on hard coal resources, production, and demand. The most important problem is not the just-in-time (JIT) strategy itself, but the lack of accurate, up-to-date data and the high technological and organizational inertia on the production side. The JIT strategy assumes an ability to predict future demand well in advance, which requires advanced analytical tools. Therefore, the Coal Platform project analyses the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to forecast demand and adjust production to actual market needs. The developed mathematical model (2024–2030) takes into account 12 variables, and the tested forecasting methods (including ARX and FLNN) exhibit high accuracy, which together make it possible to reduce overproduction, imports, and CO2 emissions, supporting the country’s responsible energy transition. This article describes approaches to issues related to the development of the Coal Platform and, above all, describes the concept, preliminary architecture, and data model. As an additional element, a mathematical model and preliminary results of research on forecasting methods in the context of historical data on hard coal production and consumption are presented. The core innovation lies in integrating the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy with AI-driven forecasting and scenario-based planning within a cloud-ready Coal Platform architecture, enabling dynamic resource management and compliance with decarbonization targets.