From the digitalization roadmap to global practice. Evonik is driving digitalization at production sites worldwide with Testify.
About Evonik
Evonik is a global leader in the field of specialty chemicals. Its credo is to make life better, day after day. Active in over 100 countries worldwide and with more than 33,000 employees, Evonik has set itself the goal of creating innovative, value-adding and sustainable solutions for its customers.
The digitization success story at Evonik.
The Group is driving forward the digital transformation of its production, supply chain processes and the life cycle of systems with a comprehensive and integrated digital agenda. As part of the creation of dedicated digitalization roadmaps with input from various areas of the company such as production, logistics, laboratory and pilot plants, a package of measures was put together to drive the digital transformation forward. This also involved the digitalization of predominantly paper-based processes. A need for a software solution to document and control internal processes using digital checklists was quickly identified. And from then on, Testify came into play.
Starting position at Evonik.
The recording and documentation of plant tours and safety inspections, for example, was mainly analog and paper-based at Evonik’s production sites. This was resource-intensive and encouraged the creation of information silos.
Predominantly paper-based processes.
Until now, the documentation of processes has mainly been done in analog form on paper and filed in folders in order to comply with the legally prescribed retention period of up to 30 years.
The scanning, printing and filing processes also led to an increase in media disruptions. The storage of files also caused costs and tied up resources. In addition, traceability and audit compliance are a given, but can be further improved through the use of digital solutions.
The potential of digital checklist software to improve processes while saving resources was quickly recognized.
Networked cooperation between global production sites.
The potential for the global use of Testify was already recognized during the proof of concept at two locations in Marl and Wesseling. The technical conditions in terms of IT infrastructure and interfaces had to be created for a scalable, global rollout. To this end, an internal strategy for top-down implementation was defined.
Step by step to the global use of Testify.
Fast rollout in over 20 areas.
The rollout of the Testify software began with a proof of concept (PoC) in plants at two Evonik production sites, Marl and Wesseling, in order to record the requirements of the plants and evaluate the software.
After the successful PoC phase and the evaluation of the savings potential that was possible by using the software, the pilot phase was started in less than 6 months in another 10 plants worldwide, which was also very successful.
Testify is now in use at over 20 sites in countries such as Belgium, China, USA, New Zealand and Germany.
Cross-divisional digitalization of analogue processes.
Following the introduction of Testify, plant tours, facility tours, safety inspections and S-O-S (safety, order, cleanliness) tours in a wide range of areas such as laboratories, production, technical centers, logistics and catering could be documented digitally and on the move.
Deviations can be recorded directly on the tablet via an intuitive web app and assigned to the responsible employee. This allows deviations to be rectified as quickly as possible.
A central office coordinates the use of Testify and thus the networked collaboration.
A multi-stage implementation process was introduced at Evonik to make the software ready for use in the respective areas within less than two weeks.
The process usually starts with a kick-off meeting to record the requirements of the use case to be mapped. This is followed by training the key users, setting up the software solution and finally training the end users by the key users.
Andreas Lindner is a Digital Partner in the Technology & Infrastructure Division and is responsible for the rollout of Testify at Evonik: Lindner’s team is the point of contact for the introduction and implementation of use cases in the Testify software. They are responsible for the entire rollout, documenting the requirements, preparing the work areas and carrying out training for key users.
A well thought-out support concept also ensures support beyond the rollout. Support issues relating to Testify are addressed via internal communication channels and dealt with in a time-efficient manner by contacts in Germany and China.
The outlook. This is how it continues.
Testify can be used in a wide range of applications along the supply chain and the plant life cycle – from logistics to production.
In the future, cross-company collaboration with suppliers and customers is to be further expanded together with Testify, for which specific projects are already underway. On the other hand, the consistent use of data recorded by Testify will be further promoted.
The result after the implementation of Testify.
40h savings on company tours.
The time saved by using Testify when carrying out a checklist amounts to several minutes. If company tours are carried out regularly, this can quickly save around 40 hours of non-productive time per company per year. As other tours and inspections are also carried out with Testify in addition to site tours, the overall potential is correspondingly higher.
Recorded data available digitally and in real time.
There are significantly fewer media disruptions and information silos, as the open system architecture means that interfaces to third-party systems can be implemented quickly and any information about company processes can be accessed centrally via an interface. Measures for process improvement can be derived from the analyses and, in turn, production processes can be optimized.
Digital implementation of internal audits.
The use of Testify has also paid off in the course of internal audits. The entire audit is no longer carried out with a clipboard and paper checklist, but 100% digitally via smartphone or tablet. The results can be made available digitally to all participants immediately.
The tool makes the benefits of digitization in our area visible in a very simple and cost-efficient way and we will also roll out Testify in other companies!
The use of Testify has changed the general way we work, we work faster and more efficiently because we have a better overview and all data can be reused elsewhere without media discontinuity!
With enterprise functionalities for international use.
MS Azure Cloud Hosting.
Testify is operated entirely in Evonik’s IT environment via MS Azure Cloud Hosting to comply with compliance guidelines. This allows the high data protection requirements to be guaranteed and data and processes to be managed internally.
Digital checklist management.
Digital checklist management for mapping and implementing cross-divisional workflows. Process flows are created once with the checklist templates and are reused in slightly adapted form at other Evonik sites.
Integrated test equipment management.
Thanks to the interfaces to Office products, SAP PM and the production information system (PIMS), the creation of test objects can be adopted 1:1 and continuously synchronized. In addition, user-defined fields allow a very flexible mapping of test objects, which also facilitates the modeling of special cases without programming effort.
Real-time reporting.
Even the basic reporting functions, such as the number of defects recorded and the number and status of checks carried out, now form the basis for decisions on process improvements.
Multi Language Setting.
The integrated multi-language setting allows flexible translation of the checklists into the desired languages without changing the database. Several language versions have been jointly implemented for international use.
Native & WebApp.
With the intuitive WebApp, deviations, anomalies and similar issues can be recorded on a smartphone or tablet in the form of defects in Testify and assigned to the responsible employee.
E-mail notifications.
The integrated e-mail notification facilitates communication within processes. To record deviations or anomalies, so-called defects are recorded in Testify. As soon as a defect has been recorded and belongs to a certain category, the responsible employees are informed in real time.
Flexibly usable REST API.
The integrations to SAP PM and the PIMS were essential for the seamless execution of processes. For example, pressure values can be transferred directly from the system to PIMS. The interface to Office 365 also increases efficiency. A flexible REST API and webhooks can be used to enable independent integration into various primary systems.
More digital success stories from our customers:
Digitalization of quality inspections in production at STIHL Tirol.
A look inside the project: How Plasser Australia is digitizing production documentation with Testify.
Exceptional quality and higher productivity at Haidlmair.
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