Case Study: Eastman Chemical achieves rapid, reliable emergency alerting and improved worker safety with BlackBerry AtHoc

This Major Manufacturing Company Found the Right Formula for Emergency Alerting

Eastman Chemical, a global specialty materials manufacturer with about 14,500 employees and a major Kingsport manufacturing site hosting over 7,000 people at any time, found its emergency notification infrastructure inadequate for the scale and complexity of its operations. The site relied on three disparate, outdated platforms (ringdown phones, two-way radios, pagers), which led to inconsistent messaging and reliability concerns—risks the company saw as unacceptable for worker safety.

Eastman implemented BlackBerry AtHoc to build an on‑premises “Eastman Alert” system that interfaces with legacy devices and adds IP‑addressable channels (email, pop‑ups, VoIP, mobile). The solution uses separate templates for operations, weather, and emergencies, plus custom integrations (voice syntax, fire panels, SharePoint links) and personal‑device delivery. Sending roughly 600 messages a year, the system proved reliable—working without internet dependency, passing a major test during a 2017 plant explosion—and has been expanded to five other sites, improving response speed and worker safety.

Eastman Chemical

Keith Bennett

Area Supervisor, Plant Protection Services