Click here to add your own text
Oil changed the world. About 100 years ago, when people started to crack oil and made fuel from the raw material, it boosted the breakthrough of individual mobility. Now the oil age is coming to an end.
Data conquers the world. Its possession is the first step, but it must also be processed. LANXESS wants to mine the treasure of data that lies in many areas of the Group.
Over the past two years, a group function set up specifically for digital transformation has initiated projects together with all departments in the Group. They range from the use of artificial intelligence in product development to mobile checklists in production to the automation of selected processes in the supply chain through blockchain technology or new sales tools for more efficient customer service.
An Overview
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
DATA MADE UABLE THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND AI
AI shortens product development time
Artificial intelligence (AI) considerably shortens the development time of new materials or products. To raise this potential, LANXESS is cooperating with Citrine, a Silicon-Valley-based AI company specializing in data-driven materials development. In a pilot project, Citrine is working together with LANXESS product developers and the Group’s own data specialists to optimize glass fibers in order to further increase the performance of polyamide materials. Thanks to AI, the development time could be reduced to less than half. In a second project, LANXESS is using AI to expand its polyurethane product range.
2
RAW DATA
A big data lake for the entire Group
Numerous data sources across the Group – whether it’s resource planning systems, process control stations or other sources – are successively merged in the so-called Foundry. This universally usable data integration platform is a core component of the digital LANXESS. Like creeks flowing into a lake, a wide variety of data sources from all over the Group are linked together here. Combined with the expertise of LANXESS employees, data analysts can develop analysis tools from this treasure or process them using artificial intelligence. The combination of technology and the company’s own technical expertise is decisive in making the data usable for the Group. In the end, decisions at all levels will be data based – and better – in the future.
3
SUPPLY CHAIN
Foundry creates transparency in Bromine business
The Foundry, a universally usable data integration platform, is a core component of the digital LANXESS. Like creeks flowing into a lake, a wide variety of data sets from all corners of the Group are linked together here. A pilot project of the bromine production in El Dorado, USA, shows how the connection of various data sources can bring a decisive advantage. Sensors on the 28 conveyor for bromine and a digital alert that indicates significant deviations in temperature, pressure or flow rate indicate whether and when certain pumping towers will have to be serviced in the future. Good to know for the plant engineers at the site, for the logistics planners and for sales.
4
PEOPLE
The digital future
LANXESS supports its employees at many levels in the digital transformation process. For example, the company participates in the “ada Fellowship” program, an educational initiative on the digital future. 41 fellows from various departments of the Group are networking with participants from other companies. They learn from each other and then act as multipliers in their respective departments. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of digital technology, to experience the future forms of cooperation and to apply them at LANXESS.
5
PRODUCTION
TrendMiner – Everybody’s Darling for Troubleshooting
TrendMiner enables data analysis in production without the need for data scientists. The tool is used by process experts on site as well as by project engineers. It enables users to combine their process knowledge with the complete data history of a plant. This makes it easier to find the points in the process that are responsible for variations in product quality or unexpected faults. Thus TrendMiner represents a basic building block in the digitalization of production: It primarily supports production employees in their daily use of production data and helps with optimization projects.
Mobile checklists – work more efficiently
Wherever employees used to walk through the plants with clipboards in the past, digital mobile checklists are increasingly being used in the future. Once recorded, the values are transferred directly to central data systems where they can be further processed. A prototype of the mobile checklists has already been tested in the Material Protection Products business unit in Krefeld-Uerdingen. LANXESS is thus optimizing its routines, saving paper and archiving costs and improving security. By the end of 2020, all plants at the main sites in Leverkusen, Krefeld-Uerdingen, Dormagen and Antwerp are to be converted.
6
CUSTOMER
Product Finder – accurate search in only a few seconds
The sales team’s aim is to quickly offer customers the best possible product. However, the High Performance Materials business unit alone produces more than 500 different products and provides test data from a wide variety of data sources. The search for the best customer solution is therefore often time-consuming. With the new Product Finder, it is now possible to find the best product quickly and intuitively. More than 100 employees in the sales team and in the application development department of High Performance Materials already use the Product Finder.
7
SUPPLIER
Accurately documented shipping
In our private life we have already got used to it: We can closely follow an order on the Internet on the way to our home. This will soon also be available for LANXESS products. In a pilot project, the Rhein Chemie business unit developed a supply chain solution based on blockchain technology and successfully tested it with Chinese and Thai customers. All the main activities of the partners could be tracked along the entire supply chain, from delivery at the plant in Qingdao to goods dispatch in the external warehouse, from transport by the third-party logistics company to goods receipt at the customer. All information relating to the delivery – e.g. quantity, movement, location – was recorded and made available to all participants. Following the successful pilot, Rhein Chemie now plans to test the technology on an even larger scale in China.
8
NEW BUSINESS MODELS
A marketplace for chemical products
Shopping online – that’s mainstream! But the digital offers for the sale of chemicals are still far from the reality in B2C markets. CheMondis wants to change that. As an independent marketplace for chemical products, the start-up founded by LANXESS offers thousands of products – and continues to grow. After its foundation, LANXESS withdrew from the operational management of CheMondis. But of course, we are offering more and more of our products there, as well as many others.
