Productization of Kemira’s KemConnect™ wastewater treatment solutions

Sustainability is at the heart of Kemira’s strategy and Kemira uses their chemistry expertise to find solutions and contribute to a sustainable and prosperous society. Hence, Kemira uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework through which the company evaluates how it currently is and could be contributing to sustainable development. Kemira especially focuses on the following three SDGs: clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and climate action (SDG 13).

In order to help their customers reach these goals, Kemira has developed several KemConnect™ smart chemical water treatment solutions with leading municipal wastewater customers. Kemira’s objective was to productize these KemConnect™ solutions (five in total) in order to enable a wider launch of the solutions in Europe and North America. Also, the regulatory requirements needed more detailed analysis in order to create a compliance strategy.

Kemira was searching for a supplier who is specialized in productization of automation-based process equipment and in creation of technical documentation according to regulatory requirements in different markets. Etteplan turned out to be the most capable service provider in the Nordic market in the domains of process equipment, industrial automation, functional safety and technical documentation.

The co-operation started with a pre-study to get familiar with the current state of the five different KemConnect™ smart chemical water treatment solutions, identify the regulatory requirements and select the best possible compliance strategy, and to identify possibilities for standardization of technologies over the whole solution portfolio. The pre-study also included an information analysis which comprised of creating a technical information plan which defined the target customers and their needs and requirements. Based on Kemira’s individual needs, a cross-disciplinary team consisting of project management, automation, electrical, mechanical, safety and technical documentation specialists was assembled for the project.

During the project, Etteplan’s experts worked closely with Kemira’s engineers. Etteplan conducted a pre-study on the control systems and hardware platforms and subsequently, for each solution, designed the final control algorithm, user interface, PLC software code, and the final hardware solution, including the execution of the detailed design.

Furthermore, Etteplan supported Kemira in the evaluation of alternative regulatory compliance strategies for the EU and North American markets. The scope entailed the selection of EU and UL certified components and the creation of variants and drawings according to EU and UL requirements as well as the standardization of the product family’s component selection.

In addition to equipment engineering, Etteplan provided Kemira with technical documentation for the five new solutions in Etteplan's DITA XML-based system. The structured documentation format enabled the reuse of modules and images in different manuals of the same product or product family.  Technical documentation was published in both PDF and HTML formats.

The project included quick product guides, installation and operating instructions, product descriptions and technical data sheets. The work comprised of content planning, information analysis, equipment familiarization, writing and illustration work, and the implementation of a new content production work model at Kemira in cooperation with the design team.

To sum up, Etteplan supported Kemira in productization and in the market launch of KemConnect™ solutions for sludge dewatering, phosphorous removal, wastewater disinfection, odor and corrosion control, and chemical stock management solutions. The project required several different competencies in addition to wide and deep domain expertise. Etteplan was able to offer a multi-disciplinary and experienced team with expertise in process equipment and process industry, including regulatory requirements, that delivered the project in tight co-operation with Kemira’s engineers.

Thanks to Etteplan´s flexibility and readiness, the productization was delivered in a pace suitable to Kemira’s technical and commercial teams. With Etteplan’s support, Kemira was able to achieve regulatory compliance in the EU and USA, and minimize risks related to component suppliers. The result allowed for an ease of installation and use.

In addition, the multichannel-enabled technical documentation content delivered by Etteplan is future-proof, and in the future documentation can be combined with data from equipment and apps, and published interactively in several channels. The well-documented products save experts’ time in answering customer inquiries and the documents´ improved look and feel strengthen the brand. Moreover, well-designed, coherent documents improve the usability and user satisfaction with the technical documentation.

Most importantly, the KemConnect™ smart water treatment solutions will help Kemira’s customers to build a more sustainable world by reducing negative impacts and maximizing their positive contributions to the environment.

“This project enables us to productize Kemira’s smart water treatment applications. Our KemConnectTM applications improve our customers process efficiency and helps them to reach their sustainability goals,” summarizes Fredrik.