APRIL-JUNE 20239CHEMICAL INDUSTRY REVIEWTake feedback from the end-users seriously and whenever possible build it into your long-term solution. This will be reward you with more ideas and, ultimately, sustainable successKey Steps for Scaling and Sustaining Transformative TechnologiesToday, I am the one in top management wanting to roll out new solutions. Ironically, my challenge now is to get that same ownership with the end-user employees that I cultivated with those one-on-one relationships. Now, I must answer the same question through a much broader lens: How do we make these advanced technologies sustainable on a global scale? We are no longer talking about one control scheme and one unit at a time, but globally across Covestro's 37 chemical manufacturing sites and 100+ operating units. There are three key lessons I have learned:· Start with something that the end-users already know and use regularly. This makes changes immediately understandable and therefore, easier to accept. At Covestro, we use specific historian software in day-to-day operations in production. We have had this system for over 15 years, and it is a stable platform. We started by exploring what else we could do with that software and built an asset framework library. My team created templates that allow us to do instantaneous comparisons between the current performances of the equipment with the expected performance, giving end-users at-a-glance visualization of instrument, asset, or unit health. We even added quick links into self-service analytics and machine learning for a holistic technical solution. · Talk to the people closest to the process, such as operators, maintenance, and engineers. As we developed our first ideas, we sought out early adopters. These future end-users gave critical feedback to our platform that we incorporated into the solution. We also did a pilot rollout in the MDI plant at our Caojing site in China. Here, we spent a lot of time with end-users collecting feedback and writing roles and responsibilities, including work flow processes that made the most sense to them. Currently, we are using these documents as our blueprint at other sites but are making them flexible. Every unit at every site has a different culture, and things will be slightly different. The nuances are important. If your solution is rigid, so too will be your end-users.· Have champions at each location who will lead the site through the transformation. A champion must be individuals people know and trust, that are local to the organization, and are also an advocate for digitalization. These people will be the face of the solution for the site and are critical for feedback. There is one last point I want to make and, frankly, it is the most critical thing to do. Listen. Take feedback from the end-users seriously and whenever possible build it into your long-term solution. This will reward you with more ideas and, ultimately, sustainable success.
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