Dow Chemical Co.
Developing renewable energy sources
Where can you find complete overlap in business drivers and environmental interests? At Dow Chemical, of course. The company is building upon its rich legacy of leadership in pursuit of renewable energy sources. Researching building-integrated photovoltaics—solar energy for businesses and homes—is, in fact, an aggressive initiative at Dow, and JMP statistical discovery software from SAS is an integral tool in this research.
Ryan Gaston is the testing and reliability lead in Dow’s solar cell project, and he says the primary challenge with this technology is in understanding how long photovoltaic panels will last.
“We’re looking to produce roofing products that will last 20 to 30 years,” Gaston says, “and we don’t want to be testing a product for 20 years to understand if it’s going to work or not. We need to do this research in one to three years.
“My challenge is to develop testing protocols and capabilities to determine what we call ‘service lifetime.’”
Creating a reliability program
Dow has been using JMP software for a number of years in its Six Sigma projects and is now relying on it in this latest, very critical research.
“We have a design for a Six Sigma project that we’re currently utilizing for the development of our reliability program,” says Gaston, “and part of that is understanding the impact of different environmental variables. We utilize JMP for design of experiments and also to then statistically analyze our data.
“What I like about JMP is that it very nicely ties together the design of experiment plan. I can put in the responses I’m going to be measuring. I can then put in the factors I want to examine and vary.
“JMP automatically will give me my design of experiment plan–it’ll pop that open. Once I get my data, I can start populating that, and then I can build my models, all in the same program.”
Gaston likes the ability to choose between doing a fractional factorial design or a full factorial design, for situations in which there isn’t the time, equipment and/or money to do a full factorial design of experiment.
The visualization aspects of JMP also appeal to Gaston: “I really like the ability to go in and manually adjust things, to be able to determine particular impacts. I can manually adjust a factor or a response and see how that would have changed the model.”
Gaston also appreciates that once he’s developed a model, he can determine whether it’s a good one by looking at the summary of fit, analysis of variance and lack of fit information.
“I like the prediction profiler because it allows me to play around with my model to see what the impact would be if I changed particular things.” Also on Gaston’s list of favorites are the contour profiler and the interaction profiler, for determining general operating space and the interaction of factors.
Dow is a major player in the pursuit of renewable energy sources. As its researchers uncover better, more resilient and reliable materials, the prospects for a greener world are more fully realized. JMP is a green thumb for Dow and others in attaining these objectives.
The results illustrated in this article are specific to the particular situations, business models, data input and computing environments described herein. Each SAS customer’s experience is unique, based on business and technical variables, and all statements must be considered nontypical. Actual savings, results and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software.
“I like the prediction profiler because it allows me to play around with my model to see what the impact would be if I changed particular things.”
Ryan Gaston
Dow Chemical
Challenge
To develop testing protocols and capabilities that will help determine the service lifetime of photovoltaic panels.
Solution
JMP® for design of experiments and to statistically analyze data to understand the impact of different environmental variables on panels.
Results
Dow is a major player in the pursuit of high-quality renewable energy sources.
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