Digitalization - A boost for competitiveness, efficiency and sustainability
At Covestro, we are convinced that digitalization will strengthen Germany’s economic competitiveness. Just a few days ago, we spoke together with other member companies of VOICE e.V. at the Digital Summit of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. Under the title "Value chain in focus: How digital processes and products make companies successful in global competition", EnBW, Hamburg Port Authority, Marabu GmbH, Covestro AG and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences presented groundbreaking digitalization projects.
How can we keep Germany competitive as an economic location? This is one of the central questions in public discourse. From our point of view, digitalization is one of the keys. As a representative of a very energy-intensive industry, Covestro relies primarily on artificial intelligence when it comes to efficiency, sustainability and costs.
To emphasize this, we presented some case studies along the value chain at the Digital Summit of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. From the production and supply of renewable energies (EnBW) to the optimization of business processes in an energy-intensive industry such as the chemical industry (Covestro) to the precise provision of products that are shipped all over the world (Hamburg Port Authority). Digitalization contributes everywhere to increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of companies.
Covestro relies on artificial intelligence
Three use cases from Covestro illustrate the importance of digitalization and, in particular, the use of artificial intelligence:
At a plant at the Dormagen site, we shortened the reaction and distillation phase of polyester production through AI-driven processes, which not only minimized the use of resources, but also increased the overall efficiency of the plant and increased production capacity by over 3kt per year.
At the same site, we were able to reduce steam demand by over 11 tons per hour thanks to accurate AI predictions, resulting in a significant improvement in resource utilization.
Covestro is now using AI in many different areas, which is illustrated by the third example. In finance, we have been able to optimize our costs by better predicting our liquidity needs with the help of AI, resulting in significant savings in the liquidity lines at partner banks.
Greater profitability and sustainability can go hand in hand
These impressive use cases underscore not only Covestro's commitment to digital transformation, but also our vision to fully align with the circular economy. Up-to-date data on energy consumption, usage and costs enable targeted savings and effective cost reductions in Covestro's plants.
We are convinced that if AI can act more autonomously in the future, this will lead to a further increase in efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability.