Automated human tasks, and automated product handling with small changeover time.

Objectives:

• Establish integration tools for data extraction, transformation and loading.
• Develop AI data processing platforms.
• Scalable for operations implementation.
• Enable domain experts to perform data analytics independently.

Desired Outcomes:

• Focus on predictive maintenance for automated material handling equipment.
• To package prototypes into a suite of recommended platforms and tools. 
• Develop AI algorithms related to the project scope. 
• AI SMART Discovery: Demonstrate capability for prototype analytics for the layman.

Current Limitations:

• Problem centric data analysis: Engineers must analyse a voluminous amount of data for actionable insights through various data sources (OEE, yield, product data & recipes, machine alarms, etc.).
• High effort, time and subject matter knowledge are required for effective cause and effect analysis.

Alternative transport modes, fuels, packing materials & end-to-end services.

Technology and best practices to turn our middle managers into data citizens.

Perfect low-code platforms to capture more relevant data and improve efficiency.

Objectives:

• Automate tasks assignment and prioritisation based on technical requirements and technicians’ profiles.
• Optimise execution with a grouping of tasks to improve efficiency.
• Predict the demand vs supply and forecast the overtime planning.
• Identify the technical competency gap among technicians.

Desired Outcomes:

• Over 34 technicians with different skillsets for operation and engineering tasks are complex and vary widely, from logistical units collection to equipment setup.
• To have a one-stop solution platform between managers, engineers and technicians.
• Interactive solution on a mobile device for technicians to receive notifications and report efficiently.
• If the execution of tasks can be on auto-pilot mode and optimised continuously driven by data analytics, this would significantly improve work efficiency.

Current Limitations:

• Engineers need to manually book the necessary resources, including equipment and technicians’ availability.
• Independent systems are used to check and book different resources, e.g. equipment booking, technician scheduling, engineering samples, etc.
• Manual and tedious effort on engineers to communicate, cross-check, and set priorities with managers and teammates.

Indorama Ventures is currently building the recycling infrastructure to close to loop for PET bottles. By using used PET bottles as a feedstock to make new bottles, this increases the value for these waste products and in turn de-risks investments in collection and sorting.

Objectives:

Indorama Ventures would like to explore innovative approaches which can address the following problems:

• Creating a higher demand for fully traceable plastic feedstock from ethical sources
• Increasing the amount of funding committed to waste management solutions
• Improving market segmentation by waste type
• Increasing the amount of long-term plastic off-take agreements between large buyers of plastic feedstock and waste collection entities

Objectives:

• To help establish fully interconnected and digitised smart factories
• Data to be extracted from legacy machining data/throughput
• Data within legacy machines/systems can integrate with external condition monitoring systems into one complete dashboard

Desired Outcomes:

• Key users are management and shop-floor personnel.
• One current method to obtain data from legacy machines is to introduce sensors in a non-invasive way to extract data for visualisation and analysis.
• However, there are still crucial data of these legacy machines or data from their Manufacturing Execution system that are still not retrievable.
• The limitation to the add-on sensors is that they cannot generate data to the needs of business owners fully.

Current Limitations:

• Costly and unjustifiable to replace existing legacy machines/systems (e.g. CNC/laser cutting).
• Lack of standard IoT communication protocols like MQTT and OPC UA.
• External sensors can only fulfil a partial wish list of business owners – mainly on reducing downtime and saving wastage costs.
• Crucial data like cutting speed, machine uptime, and throughput are also needed for OEE.

Objectives:

• The purpose of i4.0 implementation is to increase productivity or promote process transparency.
• To convince and attract the decision-makers / top management.
• Provide a cost-benefit analysis in this i4.0 transformation process to address and educate the benefits of i4.0 implementation and that it should be of high priority.
• Lower the cost of implementing new technologies.

Desired Outcomes:

• The reasons for the reluctance to bring operations to the Internet/Cloud are often security and cost.
• There is currently no one-size-fits-all solution that can be easily applied to companies for a large scale internal review to produce the cost-benefit report for consideration to move operations to the Internet/Cloud.
• There is also no ability to effectively visualise these benefits and present data coherently to address cost and security concerns. 

Current Limitations:

• i4.0 implementation can consist of various technologies/services, which can be costly overall.
• Despite the time and effort spent, the solution proposed may not yield positive results or be up to the business owner’s expectations.
• No ability to effectively visualise benefits – business owners cannot gauge the results / ROI.
• Difficult for a large-scale internal review to produce a cost-benefit report.