Specialty Chemical Firm Adopts Tablets for Plant Checklists

Specialty chemical firm LANXESS is planning to replace about 400,000 paper operations and maintenance checklists used in its production plants with digital versions on tablets during a three-year period, the company said this month. The technology will be rolled out to 65 plants in Germany, Belgium, and the US during the first phase of the digitization initiative.

“Clipboards, slips of paper and pens will soon be a thing of the past,” Benedikt Efker, head of digital production for LANXESS, said in a release. “Tablets connected directly to the central IT systems at LANXESS will make work for our production and maintenance employees more efficient, user-friendly and safer.”

The company is using Moby.Check software from Siemens to create the production, servicing and maintenance checklists and its TrendMiner software to analyze production processes and measurement data and spot trends and patterns to correct errors.

Information collected on the tablets will be collected in LANXESS’ maintenance and enterprise resource planning systems, enabling end-to-end integration of work processes.