How Industry 4.0 technologies optimize production: the case of PJSC SIBUR Holding
SIBUR is the largest Russian group of gas processing and petrochemical companies specializing in the production and sale of petrochemical products such as polypropylene, polyethylene, plastics, synthetic rubbers, expanded polystyrene, etc.
The company has many factories with varying degrees of development in terms of Industry 4.0 technologies. Technologies like these have been implemented and are in active use:
• Breakdown prevention and predictive equipment maintenance;
• A recommendation system for operators of the process control system;
• Forecasting market prices for certain types of products;
• Ensuring workplace safety;
• Employee training and professional development.
Predictive equipment maintenance
In polypropylene production, SIBUR uses an extruder, a specialized machine for the continuous processing of raw materials. It is a very large, structurally complex and expensive machine. An unscheduled stoppage of the production process, disassembly and repair of this equipment may cost a very substantial sum of money.
To diagnose problems even before they appear, a comprehensive predictive analytics system was developed. It monitors parameters from IIoT sensors and video surveillance systems in real-time. Analyzing this data allows predicting an emergency stoppage of the extruder due to the presence of agglomerates in the mixture. Equipment operators are notified and can prevent accidents. As a result, there were no unplanned extruder shutdowns from 2018 to 2020. For comparison, there were 19 cases of emergency shutdown in 2017.
Use of VR and AR
SIBUR uses XR, which is the combination of AR and VR technologies, in its production processes.
XR technology is used to organize the work of an operator at the plant with an offsite engineer. This is necessary, for example, in the event of an emergency when an employee lacks the expertise to resolve it. In this case, the collective remote solution significantly speeds up the remediation of the situation and saves resources.
XR technology is also used in simulators to train employees. Virtual reality allows you to immerse yourself in complex production processes without the need to physically travel to a remote site.
Machine learning in industrial safety
Video analytics helps SIBUR not only in predictive equipment repairs. Online Machine Learning algorithms process recordings from CCTV cameras and help ensure workplace safety. For example, the technology can identify an unauthorized person in a restricted area and sound an alarm. Also, video surveillance is used to automatically analyze an employee’s actions during routine operations.
