Pandemic Pivot

January 27, 2021

From face shields to hand sanitizer, chemical makers are using tech to quickly produce COVID-19 necessities.

Got vaccines on the brain? In this IndustryWeek article, SAP’s chemicals expert discusses what it’ll take for manufacturers to pivot to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution.

“Connected, enterprise-wide operational intelligence. A manufacturer can continue to operate efficiently even during a major crisis-induced pivot when its entire enterprise is digitally connected and able to access and share real-time insight (such as via a robust ERP and/or CRM platform). With the ability to remotely monitor and manage raw material stocks with IIoT sensors, etc., a company can optimize stock levels to be lean yet still responsive enough to answer demand signals from a customer that’s orchestrating its own pivot into a new product like face shields for medical applications.

Maybe, to meet the demands of a medical application instead of a sports application, those face shields require a different plastic formulation. Based on specifications provided by the shield manufacturer, the company supplying it with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) could immediately engage its R&D and engineering teams to tweak the molecule as needed and develop processes to produce that formulation,” writes Industry Week contributor David Dunn.

Read the full story in Industry Week to learn more about the advanced digital capabilities enabling chemical manufacturing.

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