Specialty chemicals company Lanxess is working toward digitization of its production, implementing a self-service analytics system for time-series data in many areas of its global plant fleet. Almost two thirds of its roughly 120 plants were equipped with the self-service analysis platform TrendMiner from Software AG, including all major production sites in Germany, Belgium, the U.S. and India, according to the company. Only smaller plants with less complex processes are not yet covered by the implementation.
With TrendMiner, production employees can autonomously analyze manufacturing processes and measurement data and detect patterns and trends in these data, thus detecting production irregularities. Typical applications include capacity increase, predictive maintenance, improvement of product quality or more efficient raw material and energy use.
In initial projects, Lanxess says it has significantly increased its capacity utilization in selected plants, optimized resource efficiency and reduced maintenance costs with the help of TrendMiner. In some cases, six-figure euro amounts were reportedly saved. The digitization also serves to further develop employees, according to Jörg Hellwig, chief digital officer at Lanxess.
“Competences in the field of digital data analytics will be essential for chemists and chemical engineers in the future. With the training on TrendMiner, we are already making our employees fit for the future,” says Hellwig.
For more information, visit: www.lanxess.com
