WINLIMS® Improves Quality Management at Ecoservices
See why Ecoservices chose Confience LIMS for operational control, shipment control and risk management.
Sulfuric acid is one of the most widely used chemicals in the world, and it plays a critical role in the production of key products for the new economy of the future. Ecoservices, headquartered in Houston, TX supports these uses with a century-old track record in various grades of Sulfuric Acid.
With significant sulfuric acid processing knowledge and an extensive network, Ecoservices is an industry leader in North America providing end-to-end regeneration services or recycling of spent acid for alkylation producers. Alkylate is benefiting from a demand shift to higher-octane gasoline as it is a critical fuel component in meeting higher standards for fuel efficiency and lower emissions.
Also, Ecoservices provides specialty grade high purity virgin sulfuric acid for many diverse and growing end uses. Among them are mining, particularly copper for electronics applications, production of lead acid batteries for all types of vehicles (including EVs), water treatment, and agricultural products.
Their Challenge
Ecoservices desired a web-based quality control tool with robust reporting capabilities that could improve communication processes throughout the organization. Reporting currently lagged by a day, making it useless for process adjustment or shipment decisions. Employees wasted a lot of time communicating laboratory data to operations and logistics staff by phone and e-mail.
Brett Jacks | Logistics Manager, Ecoservices
Our Solution
Ecoservices chose WINLIMS® for operational control, shipment control and risk management. Using visual color-coding, WINLIMS® reports clearly indicate in-spec and out-of-spec parameters. This allows operations and logistics personnel to immediately see unit and storage tank problems in real time and, if necessary, make timely control adjustments and decisions. In addition, unlike the previous RCS/QM tool, Confience LIMS can automatically generate and send a daily in-process report to production and logistics staff. The daily report is reviewed and discussed at the supervisory meeting at the close of each day, allowing corrective action to take place sooner. With Confience LIMS, Ecoservices is communicating more efficiently.
WINLIMS® also allowed the plant to implement Right First Time (RFT) methodology. RFT is a concept from Total Quality Management (TQM) that is intended to ensure that activities are performed correctly the first time so that no rework is necessary. Defect prevention is more advantageous and cost effective than defect detection and rework. By avoiding errors and the associated corrections, costs are saved while quality increases.
Ecoservices' rate of quality compliance was 85% before the implementation of WINLIMS® and RFT. The rate of quality compliance is now 98%, exceeding the 95% target rate. Today, the Ecoservices team continues to develop WINLIMS® best practices.