Effects of the corona crisis on the digitization of chemistry

16.06.2020 Limited access for employees and service providers to the plant, a threatened supply chain, missing maintenance or repairs - the corona crisis has also made the chemical industry aware of the vulnerability of its production. Many companies are now using a recipe: even more automation.

Decision maker facts

In the corona crisis, highly automated processes and systems are particularly resilient because they are less dependent on the presence of personnel.
Some chemical companies have therefore invested in various automation projects at short notice.
But especially in the long term, the experience from the pandemic will once again significantly accelerate automation in chemistry.

The fact that the personnel could no longer get to work due to a pandemic or that only a few production employees were allowed to work in the plant at the same time was also a completely new situation for the chemical industry. Suddenly, the advantage here was given to companies that had already had their manual work processes largely eliminated in the past, and that rely on highly automated systems. At BASF, for example, experience has shown that automated production could and can help to overcome the corona crisis. This applies in particular to the rapid adjustment in production planning and operational processes. "This possibility of quickly responding to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic has further illustrated the added value of digitization," the chemical company said on request. Digital solutions in particular are generally not linked to major plant conversions and can therefore be implemented quickly.

Access restrictions as a result of the Corona crisis were also a completely new situation for Bayer's Crop Science division. Lucky for the company: “It makes no difference in an almost fully automated system. Production just keeps going, ”reports Ingo Elfering. As an example, the Head of Digital Transformation & IT of the Crop Science division lists a new plant at the US location in Urbandale that produces seeds and fills them in cassettes for direct use in the field. "In the past, we would have used 30 or 40 individual steps at different locations - today, on the other hand, we have a fully automated production line that can be operated with just a few people," explains Elfering. This is a great advantage for the “resilience” of production in the current crisis.

The first measures have already been initiated

HMI solutions are particularly in demand in the corona crisis. Image: gen_A

Ingo Elfering is therefore happy that his company has already invested a lot in digital transformation in the past - in addition to automating manual workflows, it is about digital twins, for example. And here the current situation even brings one or the other “advantage”: If there are fewer people in the crisis, they also interfere less in the process. The effect of a purely data-driven process optimization will then become even clearer. And a few other measures were also started at short notice: there were tangible technical automation measures and conversions in the production facilities, especially where deadline pressure plays a role - this applies, for example, to the current planting season in seed production.

On the supplier side too, you can see that automation sometimes has to be quick at the moment. "However, we see increased demand due to short-term projects due to product or production changes in the chemical industry and in the pharmaceutical industry," reports Sophie Bothe, who heads Pepperl + Fuchs Sales Germany in the process automation area. In the pandemic, for example, many companies quickly switched their systems to the production of disinfectants.

Bothe knows that HMI solutions for operating and monitoring machines and systems in particular are currently in increasing demand. But the corona crisis has far more than just positive consequences for the providers of automation technology in the short term: "Our impression is that there is currently a dampening in the areas of standard solutions and smaller maintenance projects," explains Sophie Bothe. Such projects - like so many other investments - would be postponed or carried out with own funds.

Crisis will massively accelerate automation in the long run
Despite this ambiguous interim balance, providers and users are absolutely in agreement on one point: In the long term, the experience of the Corona crisis will once again significantly accelerate the trend towards more automation and digitalization. "The operators will try to make the operation of the plants even more independent of the presence of the employees," believes Stefan Basenach, head of the Process business unit at safety specialist Hima. This represents a change in the previous way of working, particularly for security automation.

The current status of digitization in the plants had revealed significant weaknesses - for example that existing systems could not be used because the employees could not be on site. Radio applications could benefit from this: "In our view, previously deferred investments in connection with 5G technology will be easier to approve," assumes Basenach. In the future, the bulk goods specialist AZO will also assume that the chemical companies "will use even greater automation in order to obtain more resilience in production".

Bayer digital expert Ingo Elfering confirms that the willingness to invest in the automation and digitalization of plants has grown among decision-makers in chemical companies. The positive effects were made even clearer by the Corona crisis. "Much more clearly than with all PowerPoint presentations that could have been made," he is certain. And above all, the crisis also showed that projects that were considered unthinkable months ago are feasible and that digitization can take both employees and customers with them. Elfering therefore expects increased investments in the coming months and years, particularly in the area of ​​crop protection, which is not yet as automated as seed production. Sophie Bothe from Pepperl + Fuchs also gets into the same horn: "Those who previously had personal concerns had to throw them overboard and mostly adapted very well to the situation." At one point or another, that certainly means automating processes even more - for example in the area of ​​remote support. So it is quite possible that the currently popular platitude of the “crisis as an opportunity” actually pays off in the automation of the chemical industry.