Demand-Driven
Manufacturing
Profitably deliver what the
customer wants, when they
want it─and do it at a
competitive price
Overview
Manufacturers are finding it is very difficult to deliver what their
customers want, when they want it, and to do so in the most efficient,
cost-effective manner possible. To address the challenge, investments
are being made in various technologies to anticipate, view, and shape
demand, as well as to more effectively orchestrate the supply network.
While these tools help align and coordinate the various components of
the supply network, they do little to help improve overall manufacturing
operations.
The Challenge: Keeping Up with Ever-Changing
Demands
Manufacturers must execute the supply plan in the reality of the current
processing environment, which is often very complex and marked by
dynamic changes in operating conditions. To make the situation even
more challenging:
• Material costs are highly variable and escalating over time
• Energy costs fluctuate from day to day and often time of day
• Intense global competition is driving selling prices and margins down
• Customers demand higher service and quality levels at a lower cost
• Manufacturing processes are highly complex, involving tightly coupled,
multi-step batch processing with mixing and blending operations
• Management and shareholders continually push to reduce costs and
enhance operational agility
“Becoming a demand-driven manufacturer requires rethinking integration of manufacturing into
enterprise and supply network business processes, the right metrics, and enterprise manufacturing
intelligence and agile execution architectures.”
— Simon Jacobson, Senior Research Analyst, AMR Research Inc.
The Solution: Bridging the Gap Between Scheduling and Supply
Manufacturers must integrate schedule execution with the supply network if they are to be a demand-driven enterprise.
Greater business agility requires rapidly formulating a schedule that will minimize cost while satisfying the needs of the
supply plan and executing the schedule with excellence (as flawlessly and efficiently as possible).
The business processes involved in the supply network, from customer demand to product delivery.
AspenTech is a recognized leader in the process industries for its process optimization, plant scheduling, production
management and execution, and advanced process control solutions. These solutions enable companies to quickly
integrate manufacturing into enterprise and supply network business processes. In short, AspenTech’s solutions have
proven their ability help companies become demand-driven, thereby achieving manufacturing excellence and supply chain
agility. AspenTech’s solutions for building a demand-driven enterprise include:
Aspen Plant Scheduler improves operational performance, reliability, and profitability by enabling companies to
optimally schedule production processes, taking into account continually changing customer demands, conflicting
business objectives, and operational constraints. In addition, the speed and flexibility of the solution provides the ability to
rapidly respond to production disruptions, late changes in customer orders, and material availability issues in order to
determine the most profitable course of action and quickly revise the production schedule.
Aspen Scheduling Insight provides a fully integrated environment, supporting collaborative production management.
Its web-based user interface provides corporate and plant visibility of individual site schedules and production summaries,
allowing multiple users to work simultaneously to quickly respond to any supply chain disruptions, make good business
decisions with respect to problem resolution, and communicate schedule changes as they occur.
AspenTech’s Advanced Process Control provides superior control performance, execution efficiency, and exceptional
constraint handling regardless of the control challenges by providing three industry-leading, multivariable modelpredictive controllers that have proven ability to maintain continuous processes at their optimal operating point. Major
benefits are realized through reduced process variability, improved process efficiency, reduced energy consumption,
increased throughput and yields, and improved product consistency and quality.
AspenTech’s Production Management & Execution is specifically designed to help companies improve operational
flexibility and efficiency, maintain product quality and consistency, and lower production costs by providing the “realtime”, relevant, and actionable information needed to control and continuously improve plant operations. It brings order
and control to the “execution gap” that exists between enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the many data
sources and control systems on the shop floor.
AspenTech’s Production Management & Execution solution enables:
• “Real-time” Data Collection, Analysis and Visibility: Provides Operators, Supply Planners, and Management with the
information they need to rapidly respond to conditions on the plant floor and make better decisions. In addition,
it provides Process Engineers the information they need to better understand, control, and continuously improve
the process.
• Batch Profiling: Provides Process Engineers the ability to quickly organize, align, and analyze batch records to help
determine the “ideal” operational profile. “Real-time” process parameters are then plotted over the “ideal” profile so
that the operator can respond in time to maintain control of the process and deliver high-quality, consistent batches
of product.
• Execution Management: Provides a powerful and configurable
workflow engine that delivers “total procedural compliance,”
encompassing best practices into interactive Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs) and driving out manual errors.
It uniquely enables companies to truly drive operational
excellence and assured quality throughout their
manufacturing operations.
• Forensic Genealogy: Provides better understanding and
documentation of the source raw materials and processes
utilized to produce the end product. This information
is invaluable when conducting root-cause analysis and/or
determining the scope of a recall when non-compliance
occurs.
Demand-Driven Manufacturing Benefits:
• Improve customer service
• Improve throughput and operational agility
• Improve production yields and quality
• Reduce equipment downtime and increase
availability
• Improve sustainability
• Reduce energy consumption, emissions, and
carbon footprint
• Support "green" initiatives that minimize raw
material usage and waste
• Improve compliance with health and safety
regulations
• Reduce product liability risks
• Increase inventory turns and improve
profitability
Schedulers
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& Logistics
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DCS
Integration Infrastructure
structure
AspenTech Enables Demand-Driven Manufacturing
AspenTech solutions provide plant operators and management with the information and intelligence
they need to create an optimal plant production schedule and better understand, manage, control, and
optimize process operations to ensure consistent and high-quality product batches at the lowest
possible cost. Companies are able to improve the performance and profitability of their plant operations
and achieve manufacturing excellence.
Worldwide Headquarters
Aspen Technology, Inc.
200 Wheeler Road
Burlington, MA 01803
phone: +1-781-221-6400
fax: +1-781-221-6410
[email protected]
For more information on how AspenTech can help you meet the challenges of becoming demand-driven,
email us at [email protected].
EMEA Headquarters
About AspenTech
AspenTech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturing. With AspenTech's
integrated solutions, process manufacturers can implement best practices for optimizing their
engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. As a result, AspenTech customers are better
able to increase capacity, improve margins, reduce costs and become more energy efficient. To see how
the world’s leading process manufacturers rely on AspenTech to achieve their operational excellence
goals, visit www.aspentech.com.
AspenTech Ltd.
C1, Reading Int’l Business Park
Basingstoke Road
Reading UK
RG2 6DT
phone: +44-(0)-1189-226400
fax: +44-(0)-1189-226401
[email protected]
APAC Headquarters
AspenTech - Shanghai
3rd Floor, North Wing
Zhe Da Wang Xin Building
2966 Jin Ke Road
Zhangjiang High-Tech Zone
Pudong, Shanghai
201203, China
© 2009 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, and the 7 Best Practices of Engineering
Excellence are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
1899-20-1009
phone: +86-21-5137-5000
fax: +86-21-5137-5100
[email protected]