INVISTA’s operational transformation with Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker

In manufacturing, there’s a fine line between efficiency and redundancy that can make a big difference in market leadership. The recent operational overhaul at INVISTA, a global producer of chemical intermediates, polymers, and fibers, is not just an advancement but practically a complete transformation. INVISTA turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for help in its digital twin journey, and they found the synergy between AWS Partner Matterport, a leading spatial data company, and AWS IoT TwinMaker, which makes it simpler for developers to create digital twins of real-world systems such as buildings, factories, industrial equipment, and production lines. The result? A virtual paradigm shift in operational efficiency, safety, and innovation.

The challenge: streamlining complex operations

INVISTA is an industry leader in the Nylon 6,6 and polypropylene value chains and wanted to make sure that it could retain the institutional knowledge of employees nearing retirement. It was imperative that the method of retention involve a virtual knowledge base that would empower other employees to build on the stored expertise. INVISTA, moreover, faced a challenge that is common in modern manufacturing: maintaining the high performance of facility assets while managing complex datasets across remote facilities. In order to succeed, it was paramount to increase equipment uptime, improve field operations, and reduce operational costs while fulfilling corporate and social responsibilities for workplace safety and sustainability. Collaborating with Matterport, INVISTA developed digital twins of its manufacturing facilities using an AWS IoT TwinMaker and Matterport integration.

The solution: a sustainable and AI-powered operational digital twin

The integration of Matterport digital twins with AWS IoT TwinMaker was a groundbreaking solution. By creating 3D visualizations with AWS IoT TwinMaker, INVISTA is able to serve up contextual insights to shop floor employees. This empowers employees to independently and rapidly troubleshoot issues, which can be worked out on the digital twin, while also facilitating collaboration by making it simple to add knowledge to the system. INVISTA now has a live, employee-crowdsourced knowledge base built on Matterport and AWS that is constantly growing. Because Matterport already uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload, and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), a fully managed container orchestration service, the integration with AWS IoT TwinMaker is virtually seamless. The partnership has had benefits in the following areas:

Remote service management:

• Facilitate remote monitoring and management of facilities and equipment. This capability significantly reduces the need for physical site visits, lowering operational costs and supporting sustainability goals.
• Utilize live IoT sensor, video, and enterprise application data embedded in Matterport digital twins to provide near real-time insights into operations, facilitating swift decision-making and issue resolution from virtually any location.

Predictive maintenance:

• Increase equipment uptime and maintain peak performance with predictive maintenance analytics. The integration helps in the discovery of trends and monitoring of equipment health, facilitating proactive maintenance before issues escalate.
• Simplify the creation of digital models of physical environments, which makes it easier to visualize and optimize manufacturing operations and helps maintain consistently high performance of facility assets.

Training employees and mitigating the loss of institutional knowledge:

• Build an immersive 3D view of systems and operations through Matterport digital twins, creating an engaging and interactive platform for employee training. This approach not only enhances learning experiences but also aids in the efficient preservation and transfer of institutional knowledge.
• Save time and enhance accuracy with an automatically generated knowledge graph that links data sources to virtual replicas of physical systems, accurately modeling real-world environments. This is pivotal for maintaining a repository of operational knowledge, which helps mitigate the risk of losing critical information in the course of workforce turnover.

INVISTA Architectural Design: Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker Integration

The implementation: transforming data into insights

The process began with the use of Matterport’s technology in the creation of detailed digital twins of INVISTA’s facilities. These digital replicas then provided a foundation for the integration of various data sources, including IoT sensor data, video feeds, and enterprise application data, through AWS IoT TwinMaker. This integration gave INVISTA the following capabilities:

• Unified 3D views: Offer an immersive perspective of facility operations across locations, which enhances decision-making capability.
• Embedded live data: Provide access and manage all the plants’ operations in a single persona-based dashboard. Make use of near-real-time insights and analytics to optimize operations and predictive maintenance.
• Remote collaboration: Facilitate enterprise-level efficiencies by empowering team members to collaborate remotely, which reduces expenses and improves operational robustness.

The outcome: a blueprint for future success

INVISTA’s journey from traditional to digital operations has set virtually a whole new standard in the manufacturing industry. The Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker integration has not only saved costs but also planted seeds of transformation that will reap benefits in the industry of tomorrow. Key outcomes include the following:

• Increased operational efficiency: The ability to monitor, simulate, and optimize operations in near real time led to significant improvements in productivity and cost savings.
• Enhanced safety and sustainability: Reduced need for physical site visits and better management of relevant practices contributed to a safer and more sustainable operational model.
• Data-driven decision-making: The seamless integration of real-world data with existing systems provided virtually unprecedented spatial data insights, which help in making informed decisions to drive consistently high performance across the business.

The above mentioned outcomes of integrating Matterport digital twins with AWS workloads are transformative, driving substantial improvements across several key areas. This integration not only streamlines the management of complex datasets and increases equipment uptime through predictive maintenance analytics but also supports sustainability goals by reducing the need for physical site visits, thereby lowering operational costs and minimizing environmental impact. Additionally, the ability to embed live IoT, video, and enterprise application data into Matterport digital twins facilitates near real-time insights and decision-making, further enhancing operational efficiency.

Moreover, the creation of a single, unified interface from which all connected data sources within a Matterport digital twin are accessible not only drives workforce productivity but also significantly mitigates the risk of losing institutional knowledge. This is particularly impactful in training scenarios where an immersive 3D view of systems and operations can optimize efficiency, increase production, and improve performance. The automatically generated knowledge graph, which links data sources to virtual replicas of physical systems, plays a crucial role in accurately modeling real-world environments, saving time and ensuring high fidelity in digital representation.

The Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker integration equips INVISTA with the tools necessary to achieve enterprise-level efficiencies, facilitating a shift from traditional to digital operations that promises not only nearly immediate cost savings but also lays the groundwork for ongoing transformation and innovation. This strategic approach will help INVISTA remain at the forefront of the manufacturing industry, ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow with confidence.

Overall, the Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker integration plays a pivotal role in boosting INVISTA’s employee efficiency and mitigating the loss of institutional knowledge by providing an efficient, flexible, and sustainable platform for visualizing, monitoring, and optimizing manufacturing operations. This technological advancement supports INVISTA’s journey toward digital transformation, setting a new industry standard for managing operations and maintaining high performance through innovative digital solutions.

INVISTA’s digital twin journey at Hannover Messe 2024

A highlight of the Matterport and AWS co-sponsorship at Hannover Messe 2024 is the INVISTA-focused presentation titled “Unlocking Operational Excellence: Invista’s Digital Twin Journey.” Scheduled for April 22 at 3 p.m. CET, this session features speakers from INVISTA, AWS, and Matterport, including Grant Johnson (INVISTA), Pallavi Chari (AWS), and Brittany Schramm (Matterport). Attendees will gain invaluable insights into INVISTA’s pioneering journey of adopting digital twin technology, with a deeper look at how the integration of Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker has revolutionized its operations and set new benchmarks in the industry.

Conclusion: leading with innovation

The INVISTA case study is a testament to the power that can be unleashed when Matterport digital twin technology is combined with the robust capabilities of AWS IoT TwinMaker. As businesses look toward the future, this successful integration offers a blueprint for using technology to achieve operational excellence. The Matterport and AWS partnership not only virtually redefines what’s possible in manufacturing but also demonstrates how digital innovation can lead to tangible business outcomes.

As we move forward, the lessons learned from INVISTA’s digital twin journey will undoubtedly influence future implementations across industries, which is a testament to the potential of Matterport and AWS IoT TwinMaker to revolutionize operations—one digital twin at a time.

Learn more about how Matterport and AWS are shaping the future of manufacturing operations.