Aristech Acrylics Selects AspenTech Supply Chain Solution to Increase Manufacturing Agility and Improve Service
Solution will enable major producer of continuous cast acrylic sheets to maximize profits and revenues by integrating plant-level and supply chain systems
Cambridge, MA—June 14, 2002—Aspen Technology, Inc. today announced that Aristech Acrylics LLC, one of the world’s largest producers of seamless continuous cast acrylic sheets, has licensed its supply chain optimization solution to increase the efficiency and profitability of its Florence, Kentucky plant. The solution will enable plant supervisors to optimize production sequences and equipment usage using real-time decision-support tools—thereby improving Aristech Acrylics’ responsiveness to changes in customer demand and plant conditions. AspenTech recognized the license revenue from this transaction in the March quarter.
“AspenTech’s ability to integrate scheduling with plant operations is key to our competitive marketplace positioning,” said Beth Califf, Aristech Acrylics plant manager. “By offering unparalleled access to decision-support information, the solution will empower Aristech Acrylics to respond more quickly to new customer opportunities, and to drive new revenue streams.”
Aristech Acrylics’ Florence plant houses dozens of reactors for blending polymers into materials for counter tops, shower units, bathtubs, hot tubs, sinks, boating products, skylights and more. The plant produces the products—with more than 2,000 variations in color alone—using precise, detailed and complex business processes. This requires finely tuned and flexible scheduling to respond to changes in demand and plant conditions, enable manufacturing with consistent quality, and maximize plant profitability during production.
The AspenTech solution will help Aristech Acrylics meet these requirements by giving plant supervisors a better real-time view of demand and scheduling data, along with sophisticated decision support tools to optimize the plant response. The solution will integrate with an AspenTech data historian solution already in use by the plant—further increasing access to the myriad complex variables important for optimizing plant schedules and processes. Together, the solutions will blend real-time information, historical data and advanced statistics to generate “what if?” scenarios and enable supervisors to make quick and optimal scheduling decisions.
“Aristech Acrylics’ strategic approach to integrating information technology will increase the efficiencies it enjoys, resulting in significant improvements in productivity and responsiveness,” said David McQuillin, Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of AspenTech. “As competition in the chemicals industry intensifies, Aristech Acrylics is paving the way for continued top-level market positioning.”
AspenTech’s supply chain technologies are a key component of the Aspen ProfitAdvantage™ solution, which increases the profitability of process companies by enabling the optimization of their entire value chain from the supply of raw materials, through production, to the delivery of the final product.
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