(54j) EMI Command Center

Dow, being one of the largest and long standing startups (118 years old), accrues immense chemical production process data. It’s often said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. This holds true for any effort to harness the power of the data in plant historians, laboratory information management system (LIMS), and online analyzers. Most of our data is underutilized and simply archived in databases and unattainable due to the manner in which data systems were designed and data was stored prior to the age of “Big Data”. In order to extract the most significant and immediate value from that data, process design knowledge and operational experience can be used to summarize and aggregate plant data to expose the most relevant information in the right context. At Dow, we want the data to start working for us, rather than us having to work to get the data. The goal of Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) is to make these high value relevant data available in real time to all levels of production management (Operations to Plant and Business Management). Our approach in Manufacturing Analytics is to start small, look for small data opportunities within our plants and operations, and build momentum with success stories. In our quest for total data domination, we are already improving reliability, reducing costs, increasing value, and providing safer operations.

Building a command center for our EMI efforts would mean that we would have all our EMI implementations being monitored through one channel. A command center for EMI would bring the chemical industry to a completely new level of acuity with respect to operations.