Client Profile:
This major European chemical & polymer leader manages four business divisions—Styrenics, Elastomers, Polyethylene, and Basic Chemicals and coordinates the production and sales of their whole portfolio of products and brands. The company has over 77,000 employees in more than 77 countries with manufacturing locations and operations cover Europe, North America, and Latin America.
Business Challenge:
As part of a major global initiative focused on process re-engineering and automation, the client initiated a production planning and scheduling project. Some of the key challenges faced by the business included:
- Manual Scheduling
- Higher costs associated with off-specification quality, campaign transitions, packaging, and logistics and distribution compared to operators with lower cost structure especially in the Middle-East leveraging on stranded
- Poor information sharing between marketing/sales, production planning functions, headquarters, and individual
The client had been using disparate homegrown point solutions that we’re unable to address the fast-paced decisions required across product lines, geographies, and “make-or-trade”.
Solution:
A leading global consulting firm was engaged by the client to help implement the initiatives across its businesses. Equinox was in turn selected by the global consulting firm to help resolve the business challenges through business process revamp, application design, and implementation. The applications selected by the client were the Aspen Tech Supply Chain Management (SCM) Suite.
An integrated prototype using Aspen Plant Scheduler, Aspen Distribution Scheduler, Aspen Supply Planner, and Aspen MIMI was implemented in selected Styrenics and Elastomer product grades. Key activities included:
- Mapping of As-Is business.
- Designing of To-Be business processes aligned to best practices in Supply Chain Management.
- Full integration with SAP & custom applications managing inventory and sales forecast.
Key Benefits:
Implementing Aspen Tech’s supply chain solution has improved the planning and scheduling activities of this company’s Elastomers and Styrenics divisions by standardizing and improving their business processes—from the automation of data management through the optimization of the production schedule. Some of the most significant benefits are:
- 97% on-time accuracy for deliveries
- 10-20% reduction in inventory
- 10-20% reduction in the number of campaign transitions
- Reduction in packaging and transportation costs
- Improved customer service levels in terms of promised delivery date and status information
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