Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG (ISH) is the site operator of Industriepark Höchst. Around 90 companies with 22,000 employees from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, basic and speciality chemicals, crop protection, food additives and services sectors are located on 460 hectares of land. Throughout Germany, ISH is represented at more than 100 industrial sites, has an annual turnover of around €1 billion and is regarded as a leading site developer and expert in chemical-related services.
In the field of engineering, the company has gone for a paradigm shift. With AUCOTEC's Engineering Base (EB) platform, ISH is gradually switching to cross-disciplinary working in a common data model in production and engineering. EB covers all engineering topics from P&IDs to instrumentation and maintenance. Until now, ISH has used separate tools for each of these.
Synergies in several areas
One of the first projects for the new holistic solution is a power plant modernization. For this purpose, the existing data of the old plant is migrated with AUCOTEC support and prepared with EB for optimal use in the data model. AUCOTEC has a mature concept for this with an easy-to-integrate standard interface that enables very fast data transmission of a wide range of formats. "Further migration projects to EB will start in 2022, allowing other company divisions and 13 subsidiaries to benefit from the new software solution," reports Dr Robert Schleich, Head of Technology at ISH. As the person responsible for both process engineering and technical plant support, he emphasizes: "The cross-disciplinary principle of EB enables synergies in the areas of data transfer, interfaces and IT input. It also ensures that we avoid mistakes when working with suppliers."
In addition to modernization, a new gas turbine power plant is one of the first EB projects. EB is very experienced in the energy suppliers sector and a proven expert in power plant labelling and documentation according to VGB standard 831.
The potential of the single source of truth
ISH had already had good experience with EB in the EMCR sector. "The system unfolds its full efficiency potential when the disciplines are brought together. Change management alone through EB as a single source of truth is so much more consistent, faster and easier," explains Edgar Heep, Head of I&C Design Industrial Engineering at ISH. AUCOTEC board member Uwe Vogt confirms: "Nowadays linked data and its universal availability are crucial; the more comprehensive the data model, the greater the efficiency."
