DX for Employees / Achieving a More Colorful Work Style for Employees through the Shift to High-value-added, Highly Productive Data Analysis Work

Executive Summary

Back in the early days of color printing in Japan, DIC Corporation started providing high-quality color ink for magazines and packaging for the cosmetics, food, and other industries. DIC is now the world’s leading provider of printing ink, organic pigments, and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) compounds, and offers a wide range of products that add color to the world in applications such as automobiles, home appliances, and foods.

At the company’s Sakai Plant, which is located in Osaka prefecture, great time and effort has been devoted to data analysis to ensure stable product quality. In 2023, personnel at this plant worked with Yokogawa to co-develop the Data Utilization Platform, a program that makes it radically easier to bring together the data needed to analyze product quality issues. In so doing, they also improved employee motivation and work style.

 

The Challenges and the Solutions

The effort required for data analysis

At the Sakai Plant, data is analyzed regularly to monitor the quality of production lots and investigate the causes of quality issues. Recent and past trend data are analyzed in different ways to identify what went wrong during a production process and make the changes needed to maintain high product quality.

Preparations for analyses such as the extraction of historical trend data and overlaying of graphs can be both time consuming and laborious. As the Sakai Plant employs over 200 recipes on its production lines, and some of these products are only manufactured once or twice a year, the extraction of past data can be very complicated. Once a quality problem is identified, operators need to investigate and pinpoint its cause as soon as possible.

DX to eliminate waste and enhance how work is done

Atsushi Nagao, formerly a manager in the engineering department at the Sakai Plant, wanted to ease the task of preparing for data analyses, and thus reduce the workload for the plant’s operators. They were spending too much time with these preparations, and too little time actually analyzing the data.

When Yokogawa consultants visited the Sakai Plant to follow up on the Digital Plant Operation Intelligence (DPI) quality stabilization system that had been installed there, Mr. Nagao learned about how this software was being put to good use at various companies, and approached Yokogawa’s people with the idea of jointly developing a software solution that would streamline preparations for analyses at the Sakai Plant. His discussions with Yokogawa centered on the integration of SAP product and quality data with manufacturing data collected by the CENTUM VP distributed control system and stored in Yokogawa’s Exaquantum plant information management system. They also discussed using Yokogawa’s Exapilot operation efficiency improvement package as a user interface.

Building of the Data Utilization Platform

Yokogawa and DIC’s people had many meetings to discuss and come to an understanding on what features would be needed to help the operators do their work more efficiently. Kouhei Shimizu, an employee in the engineering department who previously had worked in manufacturing, joined the project and briefed Yokogawa on the plant’s operations.

Based on the insights that were gained through these active discussions, Yokogawa built an Exapilot-based demonstration system and proposed that it be adopted for use at the Sakai Plant. DIC agreed with this proposal, and this system, the Data Utilization Platform, was officially adopted for use at the plant.

Easy extraction of lot data

With multi-product, low-volume production operations, it is very difficult to select and extract machinery and sensor data that corresponds to a specific production lot. With the Data Utilization Platform, however, the desired data can be easily extracted by making selections in the user interface. Operators simply need to export the extracted data from the platform and register it with the DPI quality stabilization system.

Moreover, the Data Utilization Platform can be easily customized and configured on-site by plant personnel.

Data search screen

Achieving a colorful way of working

The introduction of the Data Utilization Platform dramatically reduces the enormous amount of time required for data analysis preparation and has enabled operators to focus on data analysis, as it should be.

Operators now can devote more time to actually examining what is happening in a production process and can trade ideas with each other to pinpoint problems, based on the data. In addition to improving the quality of data analysis, this motivates operators to take on higher-level tasks.

DPI screenshot

Benefits

• Significantly reduces the amount of time required to extract trend data and overlay graphs. (now takes as little as 30 minutes)
• With a few mouse clicks, even inexperienced operators can collect data.
• Operators can focus on data analysis, rather than data preparation.
• Operators have more time to review data and gain insights.

 

Customer Satisfaction

Interview with employees in the Manufacturing Department

Mr. Taki,  Mr. Ogata,  Mr. Sajima,  Mr. Yamamoto

Q. Tell us about the acrylic resin manufacturing process.

"We employ more than 200 recipes on our manufacturing lines. Production times vary depending on the recipe, ranging from 12 to 48 hours per batch. The reaction times for many recipes can be long, and the latest high-performance products can be more labor intensive. When shifts change, we hand over the information about manufacturing status and points of concern to the next team."

"We use 11 reactors, and at certain times we have to operate with a limited number of staff."

"Although the production process is controlled by a DCS, conditions constantly vary due to changes in materials, machinery, manpower, and methods (the "4Ms"). We monitor data during the process and evaluate the progress of the reaction based on measurement values, but such assessments are difficult to do and will vary depending on each operator’s assessment criteria."

Q. When do you use the data?

"After the reaction, we review the data to confirm the condition of the production lot. Previously, we had to manipulate over a dozen tags in MS-Excel to arrange data in chronological order and overlay multiple trend graphs, and this was quite time consuming."

"Some operators who lacked experience and/or PC skills found it difficult to extract data and overlay graphs."

"If a product’s properties were off spec, we felt we couldn’t finish our work until we found out why. But it took a lot of time and effort to bring together all the data needed to conduct an analysis."

Q. What do you think about the Data Utilization Platform?

"With it, it now takes a lot less time to make these preparations. Depending on circumstances, work that used to take an hour or longer can now be done in 30 minutes or less. Until we started using this software, operators had a really heavy workload."

"The time that is saved allows us to devote more time to data analysis. Our know-how about product issues and their causes had been passed on to us by our predecessors, but now we have more time to evaluate data and are thus able on our own to learn basic principles about the products that we manufacture."

"It’s fun to look at the data. When doing this, I sometimes feel like I am discovering things for the very first time."

Q. What challenges do you face?

"In the future, we would like to be able to analyze not only quality and manufacturing conditions, but also use data to predict equipment issues such as clogged pipes."

"I want to use automation as much as possible. I want to be able to compare real-time and past data for a production process, and use information on items such as the progress of a reaction and rises in temperature to guide our actions."

"At our plant, we are proactive about taking on new challenges. We want to utilize the Data Utilization Platform not just to improve product quality and operational efficiency, but also to improve the working environment and create a more lively workplace. I think that digital transformation (DX) is one way to change how we work."

"Efficient data analysis has various benefits. It improves product quality. Moreover, by making more effective use of our time, we can be more proactive about making improvements in our operations. Finally, it enhances the capabilities of all our employees. This has a direct bearing on safety, and is very important." (Kouji Ogawa)

Mr. Ogawa (Group manager), Mr. Moriwaki

Operators discussing data displayed on the DPI screen

 

Interview with employees in the Engineering Department

Q. What concerns did you have?

"Of course, we had to stabilize product quality; moreover, we wanted to improve how our employees do their jobs. Once a quality problem occurred, they had to deal with it quickly. It was unpleasant having to work overtime to prepare data for analysis. I was always looking for ways to avoid wasting time and doing the same unenjoyable tasks over and over again."

Q. What were your impressions of the interview with employees in the Manufacturing Department?

"I was surprised to see all their comments. They must be making good use of the Data Utilization Platform, and I’m happy to know that. In general, it is said that it is difficult to make IT and DX investment decisions because it is harder to clearly show their cost-effectiveness, as opposed to plant equipment and other facilities. But I believe this software is an effective solution."

"Although I am currently assigned to the Engineering department, I also have experience in manufacturing, so I understand the concerns that people have on the plant floor. I’m pleased that the Data Utilization Platform, which was developed based on my and my colleagues’ experience, is being put to good use by the plant’s operators."

Mr. Nagao (Project leader)

Q. What challenges do you face?

"I would like to listen to what our employees need and make further improvements in how they do their work. I want to achieve a work environment where everyone is motivated and productive."

"We believe that further benefits can be found if we link the Data Utilization Platform data with equipment data. We will continue to analyze data and explore this possibility. We actually tried to link a third party’s valve monitoring software with the Data Utilization Platform. This gave us a clear view of certain conditions with our manufacturing equipment. For example, although the DCS may indicate that a valve is completely open, it may actually be only 80% open due to a blockage. When an abnormality occurs, analysis can be greatly improved by inputting both the data from the DCS and the valve to the DPI software. It would be good if the data could be used to determine whether the cause of a problem had something to do with raw materials, equipment, or the process."

Mr. Shimizu

"I was recently transferred to DIC’s headquarters, and I am working there to promote the application of digital technology at all of our manufacturing plants. I want our company to have lots of people with digital skills, and wish to work with people who are not only knowledgeable about digital technology but also understand manufacturing and are motivated to solve problems. I want to create an organization that connects people who work in different departments and plants and are in different roles, and create an environment where interested and enthusiastic people can participate in DX improvement activities." (Atsushi Nagao – Project leader)

Photo courtesy of Mr. Shimizu

Q. What are your thoughts about and expectations for Yokogawa?

"This was our first experience working with a consultant to define our requirements and build a system. Yokogawa carefully listened to our concerns and understood what we wanted to achieve."

"As for my impression of Exapilot and DPI, I feel that they were developed by people who not only understood statistics and data analysis, but also had a good understanding of manufacturing operations. I sensed that we could make use of these programs to develop a useful tool."

"I would like Yokogawa to propose not only existing products, but also solutions that bring together consulting, problem-solving services, new solutions, and even third-party systems. Please show us those things that you are good at, and let’s keep working together."

"DIC has experience in creating its own applications in-house, but we didn’t have time to do everything on our own. We wanted a system that could be used on different manufacturing lines and in different plants. In collaboration with Yokogawa, we were successful in building a useful and scaleable tool that met that need, the Data Utilization Platform."