5% Faster Batch Cycle: The Impact of Complete Plant Automation in a Chemical Company
About the Client
The client is a well-known Indian manufacturer of chemical and pharmaceutical intermediates. They produce and supply advanced intermediates and fine chemicals to global pharma, agrochemical, and colorant companies.
Requirements
The client was running a large manufacturing plant with multiple reactors, distillation units, crystallizers, centrifuges, and utility systems. Most operations were still manual, which often led to delays, safety risks, and inconsistent process control. They wanted to shift to a fully automated system that could:
- • Improve batch productivity
- • Reduce energy and utility wastage
- • Make plant operations easier for their team
- • Provide better visibility of power consumption and process performance
At the same time, the plant was already congested, making installation and routing of cables, trays, and instruments extremely challenging.
The project demanded working in an extremely congested plant and extreme harsh environment conditions (Temperatures & Corrosive atmosphere).
The Solution
MIPL implemented a complete, turnkey automation and instrumentation solution for the entire plant. This included:
- Setting up a PlantPAx-based control system covering 2,428 I/Os across different plant areas
- Providing local monitoring through Thin Clients so operators could easily supervise activities on the shop floor
- Integrating communication for power and non-critical parameters to help with energy management and process analysis
- Selecting and supplying all required field instruments as part of a complete solution
- Designing the entire instrumentation layout, including tray routing, to overcome congestion issues
The project also covered full installation, testing, and commissioning—handled end-to-end by the MIPL team
Key Outcomes
Smoother, Faster Production
Automation helped reduce batch times by around 5%, improved equipment utilization, and made the overall process more efficient.
Cleaner and More Controlled Operations
Better control reduced effluents, optimized utility usage, and improved quality and consistency.
Easy Plant Operations
Operators now have clear visibility of processes, simple controls, and fewer manual interventions—making day-to-day work much easier.
Minimal Production Loss
Because of detailed planning, the entire shift from manual to automated systems was completed during a batch changeover window, ensuring almostno production downtime.
Why the Client Chose MIPL
Complete End-to-End Support
From instrumentation and control systems to installation and commissioning—everything was handled by one trusted team.
Strong Industry Know-How
MIPL’s experience in chemical plants helped refine processes and offer practical automation improvements.
Built for Tough Environments
The team worked seamlessly in highly congested and harsh environments, including high temperatures and corrosive conditions.