Insights in 5 seconds from 5 years of plant data

Engineers & controllers can avoiding problems and environmental issues

Insights in 5 seconds from 5 years of plant data

Engineers & controllers can avoiding problems and environmental issues

About Kuraray

Kuraray was established in 1926 in Kurashiki City with the objective of commercializing rayon. Following World War II, however, the company began to sell synthetic fiber, which was invented in Japan. It developed a series of unique businesses, which include the synthetic leather CLARINO, developed as a substitute for natural leather; polyester textiles; non-woven fabric, KURAFLEX; and the hook-and-loop fastener, MAGICTAPE.

Kuraray also makes several products for the chemicals and functional materials fields. These include PVA resin, which has water-soluble and adhesive properties; EVAL, an efficient gas barrier material; the world’s only synthetic isoprene chemical products; methacrylic resin, which has special optical properties; and medical products, such as dental materials. The company expands its current operations and pioneers new business.

Their Digitalization Journey

Process experts struggled with spreadsheets containing years of time-series data. After realizing the need to make its data analysis more efficient, Kuraray turned to TrendMiner. The company first launched TrendMiner in its Bayport plant in Texas. Engineers quickly embraced the ability to analyze data for themselves. The company began to perform root cause analysis, set up monitors and alerts for key stakeholders, and predict the right time to perform maintenance. Because TrendMiner exceeded Kuraray’s expectations, the company now uses the software to improve plant safety and mitigate environmental concerns.

About Kuraray

Kuraray was established in 1926 in Kurashiki City with the objective of commercializing rayon. Following World War II, however, the company began to sell synthetic fiber, which was invented in Japan. It developed a series of unique businesses, which include the synthetic leather CLARINO, developed as a substitute for natural leather; polyester textiles; non-woven fabric, KURAFLEX; and the hook-and-loop fastener, MAGICTAPE.

Kuraray also makes several products for the chemicals and functional materials fields. These include PVA resin, which has water-soluble and adhesive properties; EVAL, an efficient gas barrier material; the world’s only synthetic isoprene chemical products; methacrylic resin, which has special optical properties; and medical products, such as dental materials. The company expands its current operations and pioneers new business.

Their Digitalization Journey

Process experts struggled with spreadsheets containing years of time-series data. After realizing it need to make its data analysis more efficient, Kuraray turned to TrendMiner. The company first launched TrendMiner in its Bayport plant in Texas. Engineers quickly embraced the ability to analyze data for themselves. The company began to perform root cause analysis, set up monitors and alerts for key stakeholders, and predict the right time to perform maintenance. Because TrendMiner exceeded Kuraray’s expectations, the company now uses the software to improve plant safety and mitigate environmental concerns.

Use Cases

Use Case 1

Prevent environmental disasters with email alerts

Even when the shift supervisor is not at the plant, TrendMiner’s monitoring and the alert system helps prevent process anomalies from becoming production nightmares. When methanol was high in the wastewater tank, TrendMiner sent email alerts to the process expert about the current conditions at the plant. Although the supervisor was not on-site, the process expert was able to discuss the concern with staff at the plant and resolve the issue. As a result, Kuraray was able to prevent an environmental disaster and avoid the regulatory fines associated with violations.

Use Case 2

Finding correlating temperatures in a steam column with 10 years of data

Engineers can get results quickly from analyzing years of time-series data. In less than a minute, process experts were able to compare 10 years of data on steam pressure inside a column to determine the temperature at the time the pressure was at 100 pounds. They were able to overlay the trends inside the software instead of having to export them to spreadsheets for analysis. With 10 years of steam pressure and temperature data in view, engineers learned what temperature to expect at 100 pounds of steam pressure.

Use Case 3

Golden fingerprinting: Saving the best start-ups saves 14 hours of time for each process

By overlapping the best process start-ups and saving them, process experts can compare start-ups from idle across multiple shifts. They then can see deviations in shift starts and select the ideal start-up parameters as the golden fingerprint. Engineers can use the start-up fingerprint to minimize waste. Kuraray used these fingerprints to save 14 hours for each start-up, as well as many hours of support.

Use Case 4

Preventive maintenance: Scheduling shutdowns saves 30 hours of unscheduled downtime

The vent line of one of the dryers periodically clogs and needs to be cleaned. Process experts at Kuraray used TrendMiner to determine the right time to perform maintenance so they could shut down the plant safely. Engineers set up monitors for trends that indicated the vent needed to be cleaned. The software then sent email alerts that allowed them to schedule a shutdown safely. They were able to save 30 hours of unscheduled time for labor and production.

Value gained: More Than Monitors & Alerts

Kuraray saw value straight out of the box. At its Bayport plant, TrendMiner gave process experts immediate access to operational data that allowed them to save time, work hours, and waste. The benefits Kuraray gains include:

Critical email alerts tells process experts when problems arise at the plant—even when they are away.

Fast view of time-series and contextual data saves engineers hours of time.

Engineers cut 14 hours from each start-up by saving the best startup profile in TrendMiner.

Engineers now schedule shutdowns at the right time to perform maintenance and save costs.

TrendMiner give a more holistic view of operations so anomalies can be addressed quickly.

Success Story

Timely Process Communication Is Essential for Industrial Manufacturing Optimization

In this guest post by Sukhpal Singh, Production Engineer at Kuraray America, you can learn how improved communication through automatic email alerts saves Kuraray time and increases production efficiency.

Read Success Story

“Effective communication is key for any industrial manufacturing process. And it plays a vital role in delivering a quality product to the customer. On the other hand, lack of communication causes many disruptions and problems.”

Sukhpal Singh Product Engineer at Kuraray America

Winner of the

TrendMiner of the Year Award 2020

Sukhpal Singh won the TrendMiner of the Year Award 2020. Watch this short interview to learn how TrendMiner helped Sukhpal and assisted in Kuraray’s hybrid working environment during COVID-19.

Winner of the

TrendMiner of the Year Award 2020

Sukhpal Singh has become the winner of TrendMiner of the Year Award 2020. Watch this short interview to see how Sukhpal benefit from using our software and how TrendMiner technology assisted in hybrid working mode during Covid-19.