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July 5, 2023In this article, we present how Nobian, a leading chemical manufacturer, successfully adopted digital tools through a proven, user-centric strategy focused on sustainability.
In just 18 months, this approach led to:
- 550 users onboarded across seven sites in three countries
- €220,000 in fixed cost reductions
- €980,000/year in avoided variable costs from early detection of process disturbances
- Improved data quality, decision-making, and employee engagement
- Significant reductions in waste and energy use, advancing sustainability goals
This case study highlights how placing frontline workers at the heart of digital transformation can drive rapid, scalable, and sustainable impact in the chemicals industry.
The Challenge: Empowering Teams to Make Real-Time Decisions
Steve Jobs once said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back towards the technology, not the other way around.”
Today, every industry strives to optimise processes and improve productivity.
Digital operation tools in chemical and process manufacturing enable real-time decisions, saving time/costs, reducing waste, and fostering sustainable growth.
Chemical companies have recognised the need to embrace digitalisation. There’s a 56% acceleration post-pandemic, according to the EY DigiChemSurvEY 2022 data.
However, merely investing in technology and speeding up digitalisation is insufficient.
The Solution: Putting Sustainability and Frontline Workers First
Successful digital tool adoption and sustainability require a multifaceted approach that considers organisational culture, management style, and technology itself. Every company can work differently while respecting these aspects. Taking a user-centric approach involving frontline workers in the tool’s development is crucial.
Instead of instructing workers on how to use a tool, involving them from the beginning leads to increased engagement and ownership, making the adoption faster and the benefits more sustainable.
Through implementing the Cyzag platform in Nobian manufacturing sites, three powerful statements emerged as guiding principles for the change: Flexibility, Enablement, and Trust.
Flexibility: Balancing Standardisation and Adaptability
As Nobian operates across multiple sites and countries, flexibility was essential to drive immediate engagement while keeping autonomy and allowing for stabilisation over time.
Initially, achieving buy-in was prioritised over standardisation. The tool’s ability to provide flexibility while maintaining standard processes was crucial in driving adoption and facilitating a quick rollout across teams.
As the number of use cases increased, adding more structure and adhering to existing standard processes became necessary. The team developed templates based on use cases identified by workers, enabling horizontal deployment and scaling up the tool. A central team was crucial in connecting sites and assisting with technical questions. Additionally, they bridged the gap between users and Cyzag.
Enablement: Empowering Frontline Workers
During the initial implementation, frontline workers weren’t told how or where to use the platform. They explored its possibilities and their motivations for using it independently.
This approach empowered frontline workers to build successful use cases tailored to their specific needs, under the guidance of the central team who helped them bring their ideas to life, fostering higher engagement and ownership, which were critical to the tool’s success.
Trust: Fostering Collaboration
Trust between central teams and individual sites was fundamental in successfully implementing the Cyzag digital tool. This trust sanctioned users to practice and become proficient in using the tool while fostering collaboration among groups. The central team demonstrated its willingness to listen, support simplifications, and show the interconnectedness of different processes within the organisation.
The Results: Driving Sustainability in the Chemicals Industry
The successful adoption of the Cyzag platform in this case study resulted in numerous benefits that contributed to the sustainability of the organisation’s operations. This includes:
- Fixed Cost Reduction: related to software licenses. Implementing Cyzag simplified the technology landscape, leading to €220,000 in savings, with the potential for further reductions.
- Variable Cost Avoidance: related to early detection of process disturbances. Cost avoidance of steam losses equivalent to €980,000/year was identified.
The Cyzag platform allowed plant staff to adopt Short Interval Control (SIC), based on process data and contextual information. Operators were able to spot the change immediately and solve the issue together with their engineering team, removing the root cause. Numerous examples of this can be identified frequently on the shop floor.
Furthermore, the real-time capabilities of the tool enabled the identification of process disturbances as soon as they arose, preventing waste of raw materials and unnecessary energy consumption, directly impacting costs and their carbon footprint.
- Data friction removal: the creation of a sole source of truth. The tool made work more efficient by consolidating work processes and data in one place. Previously, when Excel files were used, the information flow throughout a process was often interrupted, resulting in incomplete information, more rework and waiting time.
- Data quality and decision-making improvements: the tool’s implementation increased data quality, enabling better-informed decision-making processes.
- Centralised data and project pipeline: by consolidating data in one system, the organisation could drive overall plant improvements and create a data-driven project pipeline.
- Positive impact on employee engagement in work processes: The Cyzag platform allowed people to show their knowledge and practice autonomy. A particular situation observed was the tool facilitating the shop floor workers in executing safety procedures like behaviour-based safety observations (BBS).
Conclusion
Implementing digital tools in the chemical industry requires a user-centric approach that prioritises sustainability and involves frontline workers from the outset. Balancing flexibility and standardisation is key to achieving buy-in and long-term adoption.
The case study of Cyzag’s digital platform implementation in Nobian highlights the importance of flexibility, enablement, and trust in driving successful digital tool adoption. By empowering workers, fostering collaboration, and leveraging technology effectively, organisations can achieve significant sustainability improvements in the chemicals industry.
Learn how other chemical manufacturers achieve their targets using Cyzag’s platform here.
