Lighthammer, a provider of Manufacturing Intelligence and Collaborative Manufacturing applications, was implemented with a view to enable improvements to asset management, demand planning, and energy procurement activities for a pipeline network that is fed by multiple production facilities around the Houston Ship Channel.
The system is expected to facilitate annual savings through improved operating efficiencies while providing for enhanced customer responsiveness.
The capabilities based on Lighthammer’s Collaborative Manufacturing Suite (CMS) were implemented at Air Products’ Customer Service Center in LaPorte, Texas. Remote versions of the technology were also deployed at eight production sites in the West Gulf Coast that supply products to large refinery and petrochemical customers in the region.
CMS allowed Air Products to aggregate their total energy needs into a common framework, aiming to improve production scheduling and achieve cost effective energy purchasing.
Lighthammer’s Collaborative Manufacturing Suite provides real-time visibility to all process, production and energy information, enabling us to more effectively produce products to meet our customer needs, said Tony Colalillo, Oxygen/Nitrogen Pipeline business manager for Air Products.
The ability to manage production requirements from multiple plants against customer demand presents one set of challenges. The added complexities introduced by the deregulated energy environment and fluctuating energy prices caused us to look for a solution that integrates all of this disparate data into one environment.
