In order to maintain its position as a leader in the industry, Adisseo continues to explore new approaches to improve operational efficiency and reduce production costs. Digital transformation represents one of the significant directions worth pursuing. The Display 4.0 (Data Intelligence Simplification Process under control by AnalYsis) project is an important achievement in Adisseo’s digital transformation in recent years. This project can provide solutions for data processing and professional skills enhancement. It has been gradually promoted and applied in various European plants and currently is under deployment in a Nanjing plant.

Empowering industrial production with digitalization

At the beginning of 2019, Adisseo initiated the Display 4.0 project. This project relies on a complete, flexible and practical big data solution for process platform digitalization. By improving industrial process monitoring and data analysis, it can better predict market growth trends and optimize production processes and economy. Upon implementing its application, it can not only improve the production efficiency, but can also enhance the capability for corporations to manage network security. In addition, it also combines employee motivation, business objectives and user experience solutions to fully integrate digitalization into the operational processes of plants and R&D centers, thereby truly realizing the digitalization of industrial activities.

In 2021, the Display 4.0 project won the “Digitalization of Production Processes” award at the “Chemistry Initiatives 2021 Awards” in Paris, which fully recognizes the significance of Adisseo’s digitalization strategy in improving the industrial performance of production tools, tool flexibility and product quality.

A multifunctional tool that benefits all parties

One of the focuses of the Display 4.0 project is the digitalization solution of the process control platform, which can monitor and optimize the performance of industrial facilities by analyzing and processing data. “It’s a multifunctional tool that is very helpful for both European and Chinese plants. By applying this set of tools, we can share information, communicate efficiently, analyze and face challenges together.” commented Christophe Picard, Adisseo Europe Industrial Director and Project Manager.

The digitalized process platform centralizes all accessible data. By creating visual dashboards with custom parameters, users can automatically generate production reports, curves, charts, and more. This simplifies data usage and facilitates collaboration between different departments. This platform was initially tested in an Adisseo plant in the form of a proof-of-concept, and the test results verified that the solution fits the plant’s needs. It was then promoted and applied in other Adisseo plants.

The project managers and employees in Adisseo’s factories in France and Spain praised the convenience brought by the digital process platform: “By means of information sharing, processes can be analyzed and compared, so that we can make improvements and increase efficiency.” “It is much faster and more powerful than traditional statistical analysis, so that I can better understand where to move forward on the shop floor, and it helps me to be more competitive.”

Francois Mailhos, Adisseo Global Industrial Director and Project Director of the second phase of the Nanjing plant, pointed out that the primary factor for the success of the digital process platform is the team. The team listens to each user, so that the platform avoids providing one-size-fits-all solution; instead, it responds to the specific problems that arise every day. Therefore, this solution not only brings benefits to the production department, but also to employees in maintenance, operations and other parts of the company.

Teamwork boosts profitability

The large amount of information processing, robust team support, and high return on investment are the characteristics of the Display 4.0 project. It can process more than 50,000 pieces of data from five major production plants located in Adisseo’s facilities in France, Spain and China in real time. Behind the efficient processing capability is the strong support of process engineers and the taskforce, with 25 expert users and 150 active users, they handle more than 1,000 dashboard inquiries on average per day.

The annual investment of this project is less than 3 million yuan, but it can save the plant about 16 million yuan in costs. Take the Adisseo Burgos plant as an example. Over the past few years, the consumption of raw materials in partial units of the plant has increased. Using Display 4.0 big data analysis, managers have discovered the best utilization of ammonia, sulfuric acid and gas in these partial units, and adjusted the production plan. In the second half of 2020, this plant gained an additional revenue of about 3 million yuan.

The Display 4.0 project was first applied to the Les Roches and Roussillon plants in France in 2019, and the Burgos plant in Spain and the Commentry plant in France in 2020, facilitating the improvement of the production processes in these plants, leading to the achievement of higher levels of operational efficiency. At present, Adisseo is actively deploying Display 4.0 in Chinese plants, which will not only greatly facilitate the R&D process, but also provide remote support for the Nanjing BANC2 project to be put into production, further enhancing Adisseo’s competitiveness in the Chinese market.