An aggressive manufacturing excellence program at Huntsman, manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, required “one of the largest and most ambitious industrial wireless application networks to date,” according to those involved. Wireless technologies are helping Huntsman in its goal of zero product defects, zero safety incidents and injuries, zero environmental releases, and zero unscheduled downtime.
        John Prows, Huntsman’s vice president of manufacturing excellencewww.cechina.cn, and his Port Neches team sought to design and implement a system that would deliver business value by improving safety, environmental performance, and processes at Port Necheswww.cechina.cn, a four-square-mile chemical facility. Located in Southeast Texas about 100 miles outside of Houston, the site has more than 500 employees, 100 contractorsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, and 16 operating units.

        Motorola MC-9090 handheld computers are used at the Huntsman Port Necheswww.cechina.cn, TXCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, chemical facility. 

        Real-time information
        Huntsman wanted a system to give personnel real-time access to information that they need to operate the plant as safely and efficiently as possible – no matter where they were.
        “As operators make rounds and identify hazards控制工程网版权所有, they should immediately address them,” says Kim Hoyt, director of manufacturing at Huntsman. “If something is operating outside of a safe range, they can immediately take action to prevent it from turning into a process incident. As the units perform more consistently and reliably, we expect the financial performance of that unit to improve as well. Ultimately, we expect safety incidents and environmental incidents to be completely eliminated.”
        To help deliver on