A digitalisation programme planned to be rolled out by German engineering plastics producer Covestro (Leverkusen; www.covestro.com) continuously over the next few years under the title “Optimized System Integration” (OSI2020) will focus on improving efficiency in engineering, operations and manufacturing on a global scale. Heart of the project is a new Integrated Plant and Engineering Platform, to which major data systems in use in operations will be connected. The aim, said chief technology officer Klaus Schäfer, is to create a unified data model and a digital twin for production facilities. This, he said, will enable the Leverkusen-based company to significantly improve cooperation and handover between internal and external employees in the engineering and operating phases as well as increase production capacity.

An over-arching strategic programme already in place, “Digital@Covestro”, bundles all activities in which the engineering plastics producer is making digitalisation an integral part of its corporate strategy. Projects focusing on smart analysis of current production data are planned to further improve efficiency and reliability of plant operation. The aim of the new “Process Data Analysis & Visualization” project to be launched at certain sites during 2018 is to conduct a “holistic” data analysis and visualisation platform, which would generate a combined analysis of diverse production-related data that could predict future asset and plant behaviour, the company said.