LANXESS is a leading, global, specialty chemicals company with locations in 33 countries.
The company focuses on the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS’s products protect the health of people, animals and plants; help make materials more durable and safer; and fulfill important functions in lightweight construction and modern mobility.
Getting a handle on information overload
LANXESS has an abundance of growing data, the majority of which is critical for global operations and the asset-intensive chemicals industry. This data was not always readily available when and where it was needed, making it challenging for LANXESS to use asset management to drive for innovation, promote the company’s vision for a safer world and empower its persistent pursuit of sustainability initiatives across its corporate operations.
To get the most from its asset management processes and use its critical data effectively, LANXESS needed a robust centralized system. The company also needed innovative tracking tools for all of its transport equipment, both leased and owned. LANXESS also wanted to be able to manage all commercial and technical data to better identify the potential impact equipment could have on performance and help drive the results that its C-suite leaders expect.
Starting a digital journey
The process began in 2019, shortly after the EAM Summit in Geneva. The demo of Attune EAM initiated a series of conversations with key LANXESS decision makers, who ultimately determined that Attune EAM was the best solution to meet the company’s unique needs. By December 2020, the solution was live, with LANXESS implementing Attune EAM as its internal tracking platform for fleet management.
LANXESS was able to monitor the full scope of its manufacturing process via a single system. The company could also analyze its data to gain essential insights into fleet operations, customer delivery satisfaction, workshop workflows and operational optimization.
LANXESS is continuing to integrate all transport data from its ERP system with Attune EAM to gain better oversight of its fleet assets, eliminate data silos and support better transport strategic planning. By 2022, LANXESS expects all of its data will be available and synchronized with its ERP system.
“Every colleague can have access to the data and share the same knowledge about each asset. That really is one of the biggest benefits for us,” said Linda Schwarma, Fleet Project Manager for LANXESS. “The ability to configure the system the way we want to work with it was key to our decision be-cause we have so many special processes we can integrate with.”
Reshaping operations in the middle of a pandemic
Attune EAM was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, which positioned LANXESS to overhaul its approach to remote work, shifting away from workflow processes dictated by its legacy SQL database. In fact, with Attune EAM, LANXESS found it could adapt to pandemic-related disruption and solve transportation and supply chain issues far faster than the competition.
“During the pandemic, it was very helpful to have such a fast system,” explained Schwarma. “It was a very crazy time, for sure, but also a very successful period too.
Today, we benefit from a better structure in our working day. Attune EAM has made the difference and now everyone is happy; everyone is glad to have that user-friendly system.”
Attune EAM gave LANXESS better situational awareness of all of its asset conditions and availability, which allowed the company to better meet demand.
