Chemical manufacturer Huntsman Corp. has flipped the switch on Project Zero, its largest industrial wireless deployment, after two years of planning and testing.
The goal of Project Zero, which is now live at a plant in Port Neches, TX, is to eliminate safety incidents and unscheduled downtime at the facility. Using Apprion’s ION System, a wireless application network, and Motorola’s MC9090 mobile computers, operations and maintenance personnel can capture defects, track work progress, and make safety-related decisions in real time. Prior to the wireless network, people collected data on about 10 operating units all on paper.
“The old way, someone would write a defect and the [instrument] number on a piece of paper and stick it in their pocket,” said John Prows, Huntsman’s vice president of manufacturing excellence, during a press conference at ISA Expo in Houston earlier this month. Sometimes, that information would get lost. Now, with the handheld scanner and an RFID tag, anything submitted will automatically show up in the back-end maintenance system, he said.
Though it is difficult to measure the return on investment as it relates specifically to the cost of an incident, Prows said that several years ago there could be more than 100 incidents within a year. Since the company implemented the wireless network, there have been no serious process safety incidents at the plant. By quickly capturing defects, the wireless network keeps the plant safe and drives down maintenance costs. In addition, the network eliminates redundant work and improves overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to increase productivity and quality in the plant, he said.