ebook

Chemicals of Tomorrow:
Optimizing Operations with
Digital Transformation
Hexagon’s solutions can help your chemical
operations prepare for tomorrow, today!
Introduction
As the chemical industry copes with the seismic shifts of the COVID-19 personnel, your assets and your bottom line. The following are just three
pandemic, one thing is clear: this proved to be an accelerant for first movers to incidents at chemical facilities that highlight the importance of informed
stop thinking about change and make it happen. Many companies have seized workers as a critical part of the layers of protection that help keep plant
upon the atmosphere of change to address key cybersecurity, operations operations safe.
and safety management issues in the chemical industry. The operations and
maintenance teams are the people we rely on to operate and maintain assets Williams Olefins Plant Explosion and Fire (2013)2
and infrastructure that keep chemical plants and facilities running smoothly.
Prior to manipulating hazardous valves in the field, Williams did not conduct a
Often these critical employees are forced to use inefficient paper based
hazard analysis and develop written procedures for personnel.
reports and spreadsheets and to manage key industrial processes such as
control of work, inspections, maintenance, management of change, operator Fatalities: 2
rounds, shift handover, troubleshooting and to capture operator shift logs.
Injuries: 167
while also juggling large amounts of unstructured data such as engineering
documents and schematics that are critical to ensuring safe operations at Reported Financial Costs (USD): $34,028,957.32 (legal costs and OSHA fines)
facilities. And, giving the move to remote work and the inherent difficulties
updating and revising paper based assets, this information may also be DuPont La Porte Facility Toxic Chemical Release (2014)3
outdated, inaccurate or inaccessible - it’s not as easy to head
into the office or physically access remote locations to look for scattered A series of shift communication mistakes — that began five days before the
paper copies. incident — eventually led to the release of nearly 24,000 pounds of methyl
mercaptan, a toxic chemical.
These information and process management problems can and often do
Fatalities: 4
create safety risks. Hexagon (2019) 1 studied 101 industrial accidents that
occurred between 1983 and 2018 and found poor human procedures were a Injuries: 1
contributory factor. These industrial accidents killed 405 people and injured
Reported Financial Costs (USD): $3,373,000 (EPA and OSHA fines)
2,163 others — a reminder on the importance of human factors and process
safety. Inadequate information management processes increase operational
risk, as personnel often don’t have quick access to all the information they Haverhill Chemicals Reactor Drain Fatal Chemical Exposure (2014)4
need when safety-critical events occur. The company failed to develop procedures for the normal and emergency
shutdown of the Bisphenol A reactor and didn’t develop written procedures to
If a facility has been operating for years with no issues, it’s tempting to
maintain equipment used to process chemicals during maintenance.
continue the status quo — especially in a challenging economic climate.
However, there are also negative financial impacts when industrial accidents Fatalities: 1
occur, such as fines from regulators, an increase in insurance premiums and
Injuries: 17
a decrease in stock price. An investment in an asset lifecycle information
management (ALIM) strategy is an investment in the long-term health of your Reported Financial Costs (USD): $134,000 (OSHA fines)

1
Hexagon, “Industrial Accidents Where Poor Human Procedures Were a Contributory Factor”
2
United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, “Williams Olefins Plant Explosion and Fire”
3
United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, “DuPont La Porte Facility Toxic Chemical Release” 2
4
United States Department of Labor, “Haverhill Chemicals Reactor Drain Fatal Chemical Exposure”
According to Deloitte (2019) 5, growth and innovation, performance and • Insufficient leverage of the information collected in business value
cost optimization and sustainability and the circular economy are the three decision making
strategic pillars that chemical companies can leverage to reach to their full
• Limited, singular add-on tools or point solutions that are costly and
potential in the future. It is also an important trend in the chemicals. There is a
often incompatible with each other
clear convergence between all of these and digital transformation. Sustainable
operations where repair is done rather than replacement and reuse is • Missed opportunities to collect, store and structure more situational,
maximized require greater and more detailed facility information. Worker qualitative and quantitative information
empowerment and performance on the plant floor is also dependent on easier
access to large amounts data. A proactive digital transformation strategy • Multiple data-entry systems for operations and HSE personnel
also helps to attract and retain new talent to the chemical manufacturing
• Siloed information that’s inaccessible to employees across the
industry. The Showa Denko Oita Complex (2018) 6 also reduced the degradation
operation
of experience and knowledge due to rapid generation change by providing an
advanced business operations and technology transfer to young staff. • Slow and expensive methods for making changes that impede
operational continuous improvement efforts
Hexagon can help your chemicals organization prepare for the “next normal”
in cybersecurity, operations and safety management. Whether you need • Sluggish uptake of multiple systems for new employees
to digitalize and transform operational systems and processes, accelerate
your continuous improvement initiatives, improve decision-making, maximize
leadership time in the field, drive compliance to processes, optimize Based on our own internal expertise and listening to our customers share
alarm management, protect your digital investments with state-of-the-art their experiences, we have identified three principal business reasons why
cybersecurity or build out a comprehensive digital twin, we are here to support a chemical organization should accelerate its digital transformation journey
your digital transformation journey and prepare for tomorrow, today. In (employee safety and fatality prevention, workforce productivity and asset
today’s digital age where technology is being embraced at an exponential rate, productivity).
personnel at many chemical facilities are still using hard-copy documents,
siloed spreadsheets, scattered databases and other inadequate data
collection and management tools for crucial day-to-day procedures such as
shift handover. This can lead to miscommunication, mistakes, inefficiencies
and major operational and safety risks — all of which can be avoided. Some of
the common challenges faced by chemical operators include:

• Deficient mobile technology and/or applications

• Detached real-time and process data from data historians, the CMMS,
the DCS, EAM, PLC and SCADA systems

• Double handling of data

• Inadequate schedule compliance or compliance plan performance

5
Deloitte, “Achieving the next frontier of chemicals excellence”
6
Hexagon, “Showa Denko Oita Complex”

3
Customer Spotlight
Infineum is a world leader in the formulation and manufacturing of petroleum • The formalized j5 Shift Handover process ensures that a consistent
additives for lubricants and fuels. The company draws on nearly 80 years of procedure is followed, reducing the risk of accidents.
innovation and has manufacturing plants in Brazil, China, France, Germany,
• The flexibility of j5 Operations Management Solutions is enabling
Italy, Singapore and the USA.
the group to harmonize its approach to shift handover and daily
Customer Challenges production meetings, despite the diversity of its manufacturing plants.

As part of the company’s commitment to global manufacturing excellence, • j5 Shift Handover reports help Infineum meet its regulatory and
Infineum required a solution that would standardize shift handover processes compliance obligations.
and reporting across the whole group. Infineum also needed a solution that
would ensure consistency while accommodating the diversity of different
sites, units and languages etc. Data needed to be brought together from a
variety of sources, and a standardized daily production meeting report for
each site was required. Infineum’s overall goal was to improve reliability,
accuracy and communication effectiveness, while simplifying routine operator
tasks and the preparation of shift reports.

Hexagon Solution

As a result of implementing j5 Operations Management Solutions, information

is now available to all members of the operations team and beyond, leading
to enhanced communication flow, time savings and increased accuracy.
By harnessing the right information quickly, a formalized j5 Shift Handover
process is contributing to improved decision making which helps reduce
operational risk. The benefits of j5 Operations Management Solutions to
Infineum include:

• Time is saved and accuracy is increased by automatically producing

vital daily reports that were previously collated manually, reducing
overall manual data capture.

• Information is available to all members of the operations team and

beyond, resulting in improved communication within shift teams,
across shifts and with management.

• j5 Operations Management Solutions are contributing to improved

decision-making by harnessing the correct information as soon as it
becomes available. Photo: Infineum Manufacturing Plant in Vado Ligure, Italy

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Accelerate Your Digital Transformation Journey
to Operational Excellence With Hexagon
Investing in a comprehensive, interoperable and enterprise-scalable digital
transformation strategy will accelerate your continuous improvement efforts in this
ever-changing economic landscape. It will also promote the long-term resilience of your
company’s safety performance, workforce and asset productivity and provides your
business with the competitive edge it needs to perform at its best. As your trusted
digital transformation partner, Hexagon’s operations and maintenance solutions
can help you create intelligent information from disparate sources including
unstructured disconnected data, documentation and structured digital data sources
and existing databases. Hexagon’s solution also help you find and resolve duplicate data
and consolidate information to reduce operational risk, increase efficiency, decrease
downtime, remove value leaks and meet internal and external compliance. Here is how
we can work with you to implement your operational excellence digital transformation
roadmap, step-by-step.

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Step 1 Digitalize Operational Processes, Procedures and Permits AcceleratorKMS is an industry-leading solution that expedites the digital
transformation of paper-based, high-risk operational procedures and work
The creation of a solid operations management data ecosystem by digitalizing processes. However, it also enables organizations to easily manage, govern,
your operational processes, procedures and permits is a strong first step on and distribute the up-to-date critical operational content field workers require
the road to digital transformation. Critical asset, situational, qualitative and to keep operations running optimally and learn faster. AcceleratorKMS is
quantitative information should be captured, structured and stored digitally a purpose-built and industry-leading Knowledge Management System for
and more importantly, organized and made available to support safety-critical critical operational content. The digital system includes Procedure Life-cycle
operational processes. j5 Operations Management Solutions can take your Management (PLCM), a Connected Worker Platform (CWP), a Learner Experience
shift, operator round, personnel, safety, maintenance and process information Platform (LXP), and a Component Content Management System (CCMS). The
and make it visible and viable to users across the entire organization. This combined capability facilitates solutions to many critical problems experienced
on-premise, or SaaS, solution is designed to foster greater communication, in workplaces across America and around the World. The system provides an
coordination, transparency and knowledge transfer between teams that in turn integrated digital content ecosystem in an easy-to-use and intuitive package
leads to improved safety and productivity, reduced operational risk and a more focused on making the complex simple.
empowered and engaged workforce. j5 Operations Management Solutions
offers a unique, straightforward digitalization approach with its patented
spreadsheet-like configuration environment. This distinctive yet familiar low- Proven Business Outcomes
code/no-code approach enables personnel to quickly manage changes without These are quantitative benefits that were reported by surveyed j5 Operations
requiring expensive and slow vendor and IT services, accelerating operational Management Solutions customers in 2020:
continuous improvement so your information collection and sharing is always up
• Enhanced situational awareness (30%-50%)
to date and reflective of your operations. This distinction allows j5 Operations
• More accurate shift handovers (30%-50%)
Management Solutions to be a quick-time-to-value investment, with high
• Increased asset availability (20%-50%)
flexibility and a lower total cost of ownership.
• Better workforce productivity (20%-50%)
Reinforcing this first step with an industry-leading knowledge management • Improved regulatory compliance (20%-50%)
suite aimed at making human performance better through digital tools and • Reduced maintenance costs (10%-50%)
connection to the modern process industry solutions used today is critical.

The implementation of j5 Operations

Management Solutions across the water
control function has given greater visibility
of ongoing issues and given us a consistent
and accountable shift handover tool.”
- Ant Tyler, Systems Operations Compliance
Manager, Thames Water, UK
To me it’s completely game-changing Connect Operational Data Step 2
to have all this information readily Next, organizations must bridge the islands of crucial information and records in
numerous formats on separate systems and digitally connect them to operational
available on one screen. This is the processes, procedures, permits and data to help reduce operational risk, increase
first time an end user can go to one efficiency, decrease downtime, remove value leaks and meet internal and external
compliance. With PAS AlarmManagement™ you can easily implement industry-wide
place and get all the operations, best practices to streamline and improve your alarm systems and operator
effectiveness. PAS ControlWizard™ and PAS TuneWizard™ work together to monitor,
maintenance, engineering and assess and tune your control loops to ensure optimal performance, robust control, and
process data they need to do their improve overall safety and reliability. PAS InBound® helps you create a master database
of operational limits. With it, you can ensure alignment across all your sources of record
duties. By having all this information and analyze your performance against those limits. PAS IPL Assurance® provides
readily available in a digital twin, visibility into your Independent Protection Layers (IPL), making it easier to assure your
operations are safe to run. And the PAS Solution portfolio are interoperable with j5
I believe this is an industry first Operations Management Solutions. Adding further value to organizations investing

for the oil and gas industry, where in a digital transformation roadmap guided by Hexagon. Companies can further
enhance information connection and interoperability by aggregating operational data
it has been difficult to monitor and enabling a digital thread framework with HxGN SDx®. This central asset lifecycle
information management (ALIM) solution is strategically designed to capture, organize
remote assets and equipment in and link large volumes of information, in context and provides web-based access to your
dangerous areas.” authorized personnel. Available as an on-premise or SaaS solution, it can be adopted
by any facility without introducing new software or investments in IT infrastructure.
- Michael Fry, President and CEO, Deepwater Subsea, USA HxGN SDx is a CFIHOS-compliant, ALIM digital platform that centralizes and unites
operations, maintenance, safety, engineering and real-time data. HxGN SDx can be
connected to Hexagon technology such as j5 Operations Management Solutions and
third-party industrial data sources such as Aspen InfoPlus.21®, IBM Maximo®, SAP® Plant
Maintenance (PM) and the OSIsoft™ PI System™ to provide a consolidated, role and
context relevant view of information.

Proven Business Outcomes

Contact Energy (New Zealand)

60% alarm rate improvements by adjusting alarm setpoints, deadbands, delay times
and improving control logic and 65% reduction in long-standing “stale” alarms,
contributing to improvement of operators’ alarm-related workload

Deepwater Subsea (USA)

70% productivity savings in documentation and completion of inspections and 95%
saving in time retrieving and searching for quality evidence post inspection
Step 3 Protect Your Digital Investments
In industrial facilities, you typically find an array
On the journey to digital maturity, keeping your operations running safely, of proprietary ICS that are difficult to inventory,
smoothly and protected from cyber threats is vital to prevent unnecessary
interruption to your enterprise. There are no shortages of reports or news which subsequently makes monitoring for change
outlets raising the alarm on cybersecurity awareness. In fact, the ARC and vulnerabilities a security challenge. As these
Advisory Group 1 (2019) reported that “many industrial operations remain
at risk of costly, disruptive cyber incidents.” Its analysts recommended systems have direct authority over process safety
that “all industrial companies consider software like PAS Cyber and production, there is unaddressed cybersecurity
Integrity™ as a foundational element of a defense-in-depth cybersecurity
strategy.” This solution also provides numerous significant customer risk within a facility environment. Hexagon has
benefits such as: discovers and automatically maintains a complete architected its software to cover these systems,
inventory of OT assets inventory and enables workflows and documentation
for vulnerability remediations and compliance with ISA/IEC 62443, ISO and its customers have testified to Hexagon’s
27001/2, NERC-CIP, 2 NIST and the NIS Directive, as well as other standards effectiveness in reducing security risk.”
and regulations, accelerating recovery with backups of critical control
system data and supporting in-depth forensic analysis. ARC Advisory Group - Vikrant Gandhi, Industry Director, Frost & Sullivan, USA
also noted that the solution’s capabilities support execution of critical
tasks in the “Secure Systems” and “Incident Management” processes
identified in its “Industrial/OT Cybersecurity Maturity Model.” This
includes functionality for developing and maintaining asset inventories,
identifying, evaluating and managing system vulnerabilities, detecting
and managing unexpected system changes and analyzing and visualizing
system security risks.

Proven Business Outcomes

• Speeds time to recovery from major events, cyber incidents,

and unplanned outages

• Reduces inventory and documentation effort by 70% or more

• Improves productivity by 20% to 50% via always-on change

management insight into OT/ICS configurations

1
ARC Advisory Group, “PAS Global Cyber Integrity Helps Secure Industrial Control Systems”
2
NERC, “CIP Standards”
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 Digital twins are becoming a
business imperative, covering
the entire lifecycle of an asset or
process, and forming the foundation
for connected products and
services. Companies that fail to
respond will be left behind.”
- Thomas Kaiser, Senior Vice President of IoT, SAP

End Goal Build, Maintain and Evolve a Digital Twin

A digital twin enables asset owners and operators to build and maintain an information
management data ecosystem throughout the asset lifecycle, allowing for a continuous
journey of operational excellence. By deploying a comprehensive digital twin, complex
data can be analyzed and transformed into actionable information. The significance of
this ultimate digital platform is that it opens the door to the competitive advantages made
possible by using predictive and prescriptive analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine
learning and automated decision making across the chemicals value chain. As mentioned
in an article published by Forbes (2017),10 digital twin technology helps companies
improve the customer experience by better understanding customer needs, develop
enhancements to existing products, operations and services and can even help drive the
innovation of new business. Hexagon’s Situational Awareness solution — powered by
Luciad — boosts your operations and empowers your workforce by delivering to them a
valuable, data-driven experience that encapsulates easily consumable, timely information
regarding past events (what’s happened), present facts (what’s happening now) and
future predictions (what could happen/what should happen/what’s scheduled to happen).
Therefore, seamlessly connecting your safety-critical operations processes, procedures
and permits, alarm management methodology, maintenance work orders, real-time and
historical process data, engineering schematics and technical documentation with 3D
models, laser scans and cybersecurity safeguards enables a robust and comprehensive
digital twin for your entire operation.

10
Forbes, “What Is Digital Twin Technology - And Why Is It So Important?”
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 About HxGN SDx

HxGN SDx is a modular, on-premise or SaaS ALIM solution that digitally transforms facilities and allows companies
to build a digital twin to optimize efficiency, reliability, predictability and safety across the lifecycle of an asset.
Connect
HxGN SDx is comprised of two independent, yet integrated modules that address the major asset lifecycle stages of
A digital twin is a dynamic digital an industrial facility. Each module provides work processes, roles and content tailored to address a specific phase
depiction comprised of physical of the asset lifecycle. Each module also includes a comprehensive set of capabilities with additional options that
entity information. It is the single can be licensed as needed:
version of the truth unique to a user’s
perspective for a point in the lifecycle
with many digital levels.
HxGN SDx Projects
Enables better projects planning and review, ensuring effective information aggregation and collaborative project
execution, improving project efficiency and reducing risk.

HxGN SDx Operations

Increases operations and maintenance efficiency, safety and internal and external regulatory compliance through
templated work processes and manages change and interoperability with other industrial systems of record.
Think
Data is diffused seamlessly between
the digital depiction and physical
entity to enable co-existence. Then
advanced technologies bring data,
algorithms and context together.

Do
With this comes understanding,
prediction and optimization for the
physical entity to drive improved
business outcomes.
 Achieve Operational Excellence in Chemical Manufacturing

Employee Safety and Fatality Prevention: Employee Safety and Fatality

Risk Mitigation and Workforce Accountability Prevention: Meet Compliance

Digitalizing and automating operational processes such as area When you need clear, concise and current records for local, state
and shift handovers, permitting and inspections enables an or federal regulatory compliance requests and procedures,
additional level of situation data to be collected and insights into having your data locked in a physical paper trail to can lead to
workforce compliance and efficiency. These new insights help unnecessary delays and misinformation. Digital records allow
close operational gaps that create safety risks and help improve you to instantaneously deliver accurate, current and
your operations to save time and money. complete information to internal and external regulators.

Workforce Productivity:
Decrease Operating Expenses (OpEx)
Workforce Productivity: Save Time
Optimized assets, reduced downtime, enhanced
productivity and better safety compliance all contribute From the office to the field, personnel can save hours
to lower OpEx and higher profitability. Technology is now each day with digital access to the right information at the
allowing a larger percentage of an operational workforce right time. Instead of spending precious time sorting
to work remotely, which has been shown to increase through paper documents or multiple systems to track,
employee engagement and happiness while reducing access and manage vital operational information your
hazard exposure hours. personal can put your data and their skills to work
optimizing and improving operations.

Asset Productivity: Increase Efficiency Asset Productivity: Reduce Operational Risk

Empower your workforce to make informed decisions in real-time Workforce safety is improved when you reduce the chances of
with the information they need, when they need it and where they human error due to reliance on physical paper, especially when it
need it — via desktop, laptop or mobile devices. With digitalize comes to equipment inspections and shift handovers. Digitalizing
processes, the information you need is always on hand, there's no these processes ensures the right equipment and readings are
need to search for paperwork from a previous shift or interrupt a inspected at the right time and assists employees to quickly
co-worker who's on break or on vacation. highlight when equipment is operating out of its specified ranges.

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Introducing R-evolution
In February 2021, Hexagon launched a new business venture, R-evolution, to further develop its sustainability
agenda, which include climate goals to significantly reduce its own carbon footprint. R-evolution will invest in and
run profit-driven, sustainable projects that leverage Hexagon’s technology to accelerate the world’s transition to a
sustainable economy. The first set of investments, centered around renewable energy, will involve the construction
and operation of solar farms in Andalusia, Spain, producing energy with 50,000 tonnes less CO2 equivalents per
annum than the grid’s residual mix.
 Working With a Trusted Digital
Transformation Partner
As YOUR trusted digital transformation partner, we provide
evolving solutions that allow people to design, engineer,
construct, operate and maintain industrial assets with state-
of-the-art technology backed by a team of global experts and
research. Together, we are co-creators of the smart solutions that
improve today, work tomorrow and empower adaptive change.
Putting data to work — to boost safety, efficiency, productivity
and quality outcomes — are values we share with you.

Our focus is Our commitment is Our value is Our stability is

on autonomy to innovation strategically vital consistently proven
Leveraging data to its fullest With nearly 4,000 employees Efficiency, productivity and Sales growth from €500 million in
potential is the outcome in R&D and more than 3,700 quality results in scalable 2000 to €4.3 billion in 2021 with
we want – moving beyond active patents our technology sustainability – fewer resources, approximately 20,000 employees
automation to autonomy leadership is clear less waste, less pollution across 50 countries

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 Revenue Distribution
About Hexagon’s PPM division
Hexagon’s PPM division is the leading global provider of
enterprise engineering software, enabling smarter design
and operation of plants, ships and offshore facilities. With
34% 29%
50+ years of experience in delivering innovative industrial 37%
software, Hexagon solutions transform unorganized data
into intelligent, actionable information that enables smarter
design, construction and operation of industrial projects
across the asset lifecycle.

Awarded Solutions Provider Global Presence

Ranked No. 1 over 13 consecutive years, More than 4,000 employees,
across 5 different categories, recognized with offices in 50 countries
in 2019 by ARC Advisory Group

Innovative
R&D Focused
More than 40 registered patents
More than 19% of total around the world
revenue invested in 2021
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About Hexagon
Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software and
autonomous technologies. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency, productivity,
quality and safety across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, public sector, and
mobility applications.

Hexagon’s PPM division empowers its clients to transform unstructured information

into a smart digital asset to visualize, build, and manage structures and facilities of all
complexities, ensuring safe and efficient operation throughout the entire lifecycle.

Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 22,000 employees in 50 countries

and net sales of approximately 4.3bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us
@HexagonAB.

© 2022 Hexagon AB and/or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All rights reserved. 04/22 PPM-US-ENG