Datastream Helps Zeneca Realize Performance Improvements

Zeneca is an international leader in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Zeneca's Huddersfield operation is the largest of the corporation's seven production sites in the UK. The facility produces agrochemicals and other chemicals with most of its production destined for export.

The Challenge
Zeneca's Huddersfield Works is a large production facility by any standard. Occupying 250 acres and manned by a staff of 1,500, the facility is a diverse campus of several different plants. To satisfy production demands, Zeneca must utilize the latest maintenance techniques to keep its business strategy current. By the early 1990s, Huddersfield had an extensive Information Technology (IT) system, but it failed to yield all of the answers needed to boost production.

"By the end of 1994, information from the IT system, improved working methods, and the resultant increased efficiency meant that much of the 'low-hanging fruit' [easily achievable maintenance improvements] had been identified and harvested," says Bob Preston, works mechanical engineer at Zeneca Huddersfield. "This left us with more complex maintenance targets that were unobtainable using the current regime and practices."

The Solution
Zeneca began to use a Datastream asset management solution to find new and better ways to manage assets. The first project to receive attention was a 20-year-old ice plant that made crushed ice and was involved in a number of processes at Huddersfield. Any breakdown of the ice plant led to production delays in other areas.

"Ice plants always give trouble as soon as you have a moderately hot day, often producing mushy ice—and panic—as your maintenance team tries to sort it out before the production managers start shouting," says Preston. "As the ice is distributed by being blown through pipes to adjacent plants, mushy ice clogs the pipes and causes delays, creating the risk of costly downtime."

The Results
Using the summer season as a benchmark, Zeneca found that following the implementation of Datastream software, the ice plant suffered 1,500 hours less downtime—even during the record heat wave they suffered. As a result, Datastream helped Zeneca Huddersfield realize 1,500 hours of extra production—worth £1.5 million.

"There could not have been more hostile conditions for any ice plant than that summer, but the plant ran perfectly," Preston says. "Yet, we had not done anything drastic to the plant other than redesign a few components. Without Datastream, we could have achieved some performance improvement, but only after spending substantially more money on supplementary machinery like additional chillers. The impressive results were achieved simply because Datastream helped us discover how to run the plant better and more effectively."