‘Refinery of the future’ may not be the most common definition for the acronym ROTF, but it’s number one for the staff of Texmark Chemicals Inc. A pioneer in the industrial internet of things, Texmark is incorporating new technology into existing chemical manufacture procedures at its southeast Texas plant, modeling the future for the petrochemical industry.

“We don’t see a solution and go, ‘Let’s go start doing this in the plant because this IoT thing is really cool.’ It’s just the converse … the refinery of the future uses IoT to connect us with technology so that we’re doing it better and faster and safer,” said Linda Salinas (pictured, right), vice president of operations at Texmark Chemicals.

Salinas was joined by Doug Smith (pictured, left), chief executive officer of Texmark Chemicals, for an interview with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the LiveWorx 18 event in Boston, Massachusetts. They discussed how Texmark is integrating new technology into petrochemical manufacturing operations at the company’s plant in Houston, Texas. (* Disclosure below.)

Transformation involves everyone

Texmark has a democratic view of the transformation process, and the company’s employees have been included in every step. This gives them a personal interest in the success of the project and hands-on involvement as their job description changes.

“It wasn’t about … the partners coming in to Texmark and installing everything and then giving us the key and say[ing], ‘Turn it on,'” Salinas said. “We included our employees in the installation process, so they know how the sensors went in, they know how to adjust the antenna, they know on a first-name basis all the tech contacts within all of our ecosystem partners. So this is not a [management] project, it is their project; they have ownership,” Salinas said.

Texmark works with 13 ecosystem partners, including PTC Inc., CB Technologies Inc., Aruba Networks Inc. and Deloitte LLP. Together they manage technology for five core use cases in the Texmark plant: Condition monitoring and predictive analytics; video as a sensor; safety and security; connected worker or augmented reality; and asset integrity. All technology sits on top of a wireless control system built in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Clear expectations upfront are key to maintaining good relationships when interacting with this many partners, according to Smith. “You have to have this honesty, and you have to feel comfortable with the partners, and [you] have [to] set a standard from the get-go … clear communication, setting achievable goals. And when [you] encounter problems, address them immediately,” he said.

Offering customers IoT services as an add-on has provided instant proof of value for the new technologies. “Part of our competitive edge is to be able to offer an IoT add-on, kind of like, ‘Would you like fries with that?'” Salinas said.

Texmark then optimizes processes on the customer’s behalf and provides the data at a surcharge.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the LiveWorx 18 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the LiveWorx event. Neither PTC Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE