Avoid Unplanned Downtime in Chemical Manufacturing
Most chemical manufacturers recognize Quality Management as a paramount tool in ensuring smooth operations. A capable Quality Management program supported by a robust statistical process control (SPC) software like NWA Quality Analyst® allows manufacturers to optimize material efficiency, cut down on product waste, and in turn, increase product yield.
However, fewer manufacturers recognize the effectiveness of applying the SPC methodology to avoid unplanned downtime.
Regardless of the severity or length, unplanned downtime drastically diminishes ROI and operating income. The tangible and intangible losses can impact operations for days if not months after resolution, not to mention the unknown time it will take to reach that resolution in the first place.
Unplanned outages can occur for several reasons, including:
Mechanical failure:
From general equipment breakdown to valve failures to compressor malfunctions, machine error can happen due to several variables, and depending on the situation, can cause unplanned downtime.
Feedstock issues:
Inconsistencies in raw materials can create multiple issues throughout the chemical manufacturing process with varying severity. In extreme cases, it can mean a cracker outage or catalyst shut down.
Process upsets:
Out-of-Control (hyper link to spec vs. control blog post) variables in your process like temperature or pressure can cause systems to trip and shut down.
Operator error:
Humans make mistakes and when these mistakes happen during operations, they can trigger an unplanned outage.
With NWA Quality Analyst and NWA Analytics Knowledge Suite™, manufacturers can avoid these common pitfalls to avoid unplanned downtime.
By leveraging the power of advanced analytics in conjunction with automated knowledge capture and alerts, decreasing unplanned outages is not only possible, but easier than ever.
How does it work? Let’s use the above examples to illustrate how NWA Quality Analyst and NWA Analytics Knowledge Suite can help process manufacturers sidestep these issues entirely.
Mechanical failure:
While typical maintenance systems have no means to be aware of process deviations, SPC analytics can be leveraged to predict machine usage and deterioration by analyzing countless real-time variables in your process data. With NWA Quality Analyst, manufacturers can move from a reactive to preventative machine maintenance strategy to employ Just-in-Time responses. Additionally, using SPC methods to detect performance failure allows operators to make real-time process adjustments that optimize each machine’s performance.
Feedstock issues:
For process manufacturers that rely on outsourced raw materials, Quality Assurance is always at the forefront of the conversation. However, with complex operations like multi-stream processing, Quality Assurance teams are often drowning in process data to analyze with little time to generate insights from those analyses. NWA Quality Analyst’s advanced analytics automatically separate typical process noise from statistically significant signals, so you can be certain of product quality at every point in your process. Additionally, with NWA Analytics Knowledge Suite, front-line operators are equipped with SOP documents to resolve the issue when presented with a real-time alert of process deviation.
Process upsets:
The SPC methodology emphasizes not only detecting variation but also determining the cause of variation. NWA Quality Analyst helps process manufacturers work to eliminate variation by determining the root cause and offering actionable insights to fix it. Less variation means fewer process upsets, which in turn means decreased unplanned downtime.
Operator error:
Human error reigns supreme as the most unavoidable problem for manufacturers, and with an ever-growing skills gap among the industry workforce (hyperlink), curtailing the effects of operator error is more important than ever. With role-based dashboards and visualizations designed by internal Quality Subject Matter Experts (SME), NWA Analytics Knowledge Suite delivers statistically significant information, with actionable insights to the right person at the right time. Additionally, the customizability of this Operational Guidance System allows engineers the ability to give operators resolution tracks best suited to their individual role and understanding.
Unplanned downtime causes immense stress on every level in a manufacturing organization, from employees, to teams, to plants to the entire enterprise. But with NWA Quality Analyst and NWA Analytics Knowledge Suite, manufacturers can get forewarning of potential issues and mitigate or eliminate their impact.
To learn more about avoiding unplanned downtime with Northwest Analytics’ solutions, fill out this form or email us at info@nwasoft.com.