Case Studies Dow Chemical Eliminates Raw Material Management Errors with aspenONE MES Suite

Edit This Case Study Record

	Dow Chemical Eliminates Raw Material Management Errors with aspenONE MES Suite

Dow Chemical Eliminates Raw Material Management Errors with aspenONE MES Suite

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries	Chemicals
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Manufacturing System Automation
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Dow Chemical manufactures more than 3,300 products at 156 manufacturing sites in 37 countries and delivers a range of plastics, chemicals and agricultural products to customers in 160 countries. Many production facilities work with packaged, small-capacity containers that look alike from the outside but contain raw materials that are chemically different. If a container is misidentified and the wrong material is added, a process upset occurs, adversely impacting product quality, material and asset utilization, or causing a health, safety and environment incident. Dow’s objective is to greatly reduce the risk of a process upset and move their operation from two to six sigma performance. Dow faced a number of challenges. Raw materials enter and exit the process at different times and from different locations. The control system is unable to differentiate between the various containers and materials, and human detection is unreliable. Read More
About Customer	Dow Chemical is a multinational corporation that manufactures more than 3,300 products at 156 manufacturing sites in 37 countries. The company delivers a broad range of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products to customers in 160 countries. Many of their production facilities work with packaged, small-capacity containers that look alike from the outside but contain raw materials that are chemically different. The company's objective is to greatly reduce the risk of a process upset and move their operation from two to six sigma performance. Read More
Solution	Dow developed a high-integrity material flow (HIMF) system, which is a method of ensuring that the movement of materials into and potentially out of a process position is authenticated. The HIMF system was built using two key products in the aspenONE MES suite: Aspen Production Execution Manager and Aspen InfoPlus.21 as an MES solution for procedural control. Connectivity between the MES solution and the warehouse data management system is essential for proper authentication of materials. As material is moved from the warehouse into production, the MES and warehouse systems share reference data. The MES system automatically generates a work request using Aspen Production Execution Manager, guiding the operator in material identification and retrieval. Material moved into production is compared with control system information through the use of a mobile human machine interface (HMI), which is a bar code scanner that’s integrated with a wireless mobile computer. Aspen InfoPlus.21 interfaces with the plant control system to confirm that the material the operator has scanned on the HMI at the production position is indeed the correct material for the recipe being executed. The automated workflow and product validation enabled by Aspen Production Execution Manager allows Dow to authenticate materials before they are used in the process. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Chemicals

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Dow Chemical manufactures more than 3,300 products at 156 manufacturing sites in 37 countries and delivers a range of plastics, chemicals and agricultural products to customers in 160 countries. Many production facilities work with packaged, small-capacity containers that look alike from the outside but contain raw materials that are chemically different. If a container is misidentified and the wrong material is added, a process upset occurs, adversely impacting product quality, material and asset utilization, or causing a health, safety and environment incident. Dow’s objective is to greatly reduce the risk of a process upset and move their operation from two to six sigma performance. Dow faced a number of challenges. Raw materials enter and exit the process at different times and from different locations. The control system is unable to differentiate between the various containers and materials, and human detection is unreliable.

About Customer

Dow Chemical is a multinational corporation that manufactures more than 3,300 products at 156 manufacturing sites in 37 countries. The company delivers a broad range of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products to customers in 160 countries. Many of their production facilities work with packaged, small-capacity containers that look alike from the outside but contain raw materials that are chemically different. The company's objective is to greatly reduce the risk of a process upset and move their operation from two to six sigma performance.

Solution

Dow developed a high-integrity material flow (HIMF) system, which is a method of ensuring that the movement of materials into and potentially out of a process position is authenticated. The HIMF system was built using two key products in the aspenONE MES suite: Aspen Production Execution Manager and Aspen InfoPlus.21 as an MES solution for procedural control. Connectivity between the MES solution and the warehouse data management system is essential for proper authentication of materials. As material is moved from the warehouse into production, the MES and warehouse systems share reference data. The MES system automatically generates a work request using Aspen Production Execution Manager, guiding the operator in material identification and retrieval. Material moved into production is compared with control system information through the use of a mobile human machine interface (HMI), which is a bar code scanner that’s integrated with a wireless mobile computer. Aspen InfoPlus.21 interfaces with the plant control system to confirm that the material the operator has scanned on the HMI at the production position is indeed the correct material for the recipe being executed. The automated workflow and product validation enabled by Aspen Production Execution Manager allows Dow to authenticate materials before they are used in the process.

Impact #1	Errors due to positioning incorrect raw materials into production have been completely eliminated, moving this work process from a two sigma to near the targeted six sigma operation.
Impact #2	Aspen Production Execution Manager provides the rigor of a programmed work procedure with automatic notification of a set of actions to an operator’s hand-held device.
Impact #3	Dow plans to implement this solution in sites across the company.

Impact #1

Errors due to positioning incorrect raw materials into production have been completely eliminated, moving this work process from a two sigma to near the targeted six sigma operation.

Impact #2

Aspen Production Execution Manager provides the rigor of a programmed work procedure with automatic notification of a set of actions to an operator’s hand-held device.

Impact #3

Dow plans to implement this solution in sites across the company.

Benefit #1	Completely eliminate errors due to misidentification of raw materials
Benefit #2	Assure six sigma performance of the raw material management work process

Benefit #1

Completely eliminate errors due to misidentification of raw materials

Benefit #2

Assure six sigma performance of the raw material management work process

Download PDF Version

Overview

Dow Chemical Eliminates Raw Material Management Errors with aspenONE MES Suite

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit