In times of soaring steel demand, new production capacities and improvements of existing production technologies are required. The quality of the steel depends on how well and reproducibly the individual process steps are carried out. The Metrohm ProcessLab system described here is used for fully automatic on-site analysis of the relevant process parameters of a steel pickling bath: free acid and total acid as well as the Fe(II) and Fe(III) concentrations. This means that all the analytical data is available directly after sampling. The amount of bath additives to be added can be calculated automatically and, if required, also added automatically. The system offers numerous possibilities for process integration, which guarantees that the relevant information is quickly available wherever it is required.Thanks to ProcessLab, pickling baths can be used more economically and ecologically and operating and disposal costs are considerably reduced. This also contributes significantly to protecting both resources and the environment.