Process Manufacturers Must Optimize Their Network of Assets to Drive Higher Margins

Phil Black - PII Editor 13/04/2012

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Geographic Market Shift Drives the Need to Optimize Plants and Assets Dynamically Across the Global Supply Chain

A new white paper, The Evolution of Optimization in the Process Industries, says process manufacturing leaders must optimize networks of plants and assets to drive higher margins in response to geographic market shifts. Written by IDC Manufacturing Insights and sponsored by Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN), the paper details how optimizing plants and assets dynamically across the global supply chain represents the latest phase in the evolution of process optimization.

The IDC paper highlights how competing effectively today requires a fundamental shift from supply push to demand pull. This requirement is driven by the need to better satisfy customers in today’s environment where they have more supply choice. As a result manufacturers must compete not just on product quality, but also on higher levels of customer service.

Applying optimization technology from AspenTech across engineering, manufacturing and supply chain operations helps process manufacturers achieve those higher quality and customer service levels by enabling them to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, which translates into superior financial and operating performance.

A case study of Dow Chemical featured in the paper illustrates how the company is addressing critical business challenges through process optimization. The paper underlines how Dow created a center of operational excellence run by a network of practitioners from multiple plants worldwide to rapidly share and disseminate best practices. Dow”s cumulative savings from advanced control and optimization are projected to be more than $1 billion.