Chemical companies are trying to take advantage of digitisation

Companies such as BASF, Evonik, Borealis and Eastman are beginning to implement industrial 4.0 technology and artificial intelligence on a large scale. By improving operational efficiency, automating processes and strengthening R & D, people realize that if the market falls, these technological changes can stabilize profits and create more revenue streams.

The potential of digital in chemicals to increase production, increase innovation and shorten value chains has been exciting. Now that these significant returns are seen, more companies are trying to benefit from digitization.

Sensors, drives, cameras, and even tablet applications support this initiative.

They help customers customize orders, automate logistics and transport processes, simplify inventory and improve telecommunications. With the support of sensory application, the potential of machine learning also excites people in this field.

Increase production by 10%

To achieve this goal, data is everything. Since the 1980s, people have been collecting useful data for a long time. But now, the combination of advanced analytical technology, strong processing power and global digital thinking means that the industry can finally make full use of these data.

These data and the areas in which these new technologies are working can be roughly divided into four categories; R & D, manufacturing, logistics and business operations.

With the use of existing data sets and new data collection to further improve the revenue, manufacturing may be the fastest area to get returns. We've seen it on Bayer and the winning valve. Together, they checked hundreds of valves in production to better understand their life cycle, strengthen production control, and feedback potential structural improvements to suppliers.

In another case, an unnamed leading commodity chemical company used more than 500 million existing data points in a factory and applied advanced modeling technology. This has increased output by 10 per cent and energy consumption by 25 per cent. This success was achieved through an existing dataset with zero capex.

Bayer, another company, uses machine learning and automation equipment to obtain data from the R & D process and uses it to determine the quality and possible anomalies of each batch of products, thereby reducing waste and improving quality control. It is known as quartz (zero quality release time) or "do it right for the first time," and is now the core tool for 6Sigma 3. This reduces production time and operators can assess batch quality as early as possible. The R & D process has also become more accurate.

Voice application

Digitalization also has a similar positive impact on R & D, shortens the time of product development and makes high-profit products commercialized faster. Following the pharmaceutical industry process, professional chemical companies will be able to simulate experiments in a virtual way to avoid wasting time and resources in developing new molecules.

That's what Monsanto, the world's leading agrochemical company, is doing. The company has been analysing data from thousands of farmers around the world (crops, weather, soil, etc.) and developing integrated chemical solutions based on the operations of each farmer.

Although many R & D chemists believe that the data collected through their experiments is "theirs", the industry needs to get rid of this mentality and really take advantage of the power of digital. To support this, Evonik is developing a voice control application / assistant called coatino, which allows chemists to identify the best additives in the recipe.

BASF-upgrade

Connecting the industry has an important advantage, and digitization will help achieve this by improving logistics. In this regard, BASF upgraded its 10 square kilometers base in Ludwigshafen, the world's largest integrated chemical base. BASF invented the word "maintenance 4.0", using more than 600000 sensors and a personalized 5g network to support its infrastructure and help manage its fleet of vehicles on the spot. The system involves a variety of technologies for forecasting and mitigating maintenance problems.

Potential defects

However, all of these changes have potential pitfalls. This depends largely on the degree of digitization, not the technology itself - 70 percent of chemical industry executives believe that digitization will disrupt their industry.

Considering the mature capital environment and the large scale of operation, the cost of technology transformation will be high. There are too many things to consider - installing sensors, investing in computers for processing, hiring multiple data analysis experts, contracting with external agencies, and potential cyber security threats - are numerous.

Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Finance/11134-Chemical-companies-are-trying-to-take-advantage-of-digitisation.html