ModelEnterprise case: Maximizing asset utilization

Optimal production planning for fine chemicals manufacture

Fig. 1 – Multi-purpose, multi-product production – click to enlarge

"Maximizing asset utilization resulted in a 16% increase in overall production plus on-target production of the high-value product."

The client for this project was a large UK-based fine chemicals manufacturer with a number of products being produced by the same multi-purpose facilities.

The company approached PSE because it wanted to maximise production of most profitable product, and at the same time improve general asset utilisation

Objectives

The main objective of the project was to establish the optimal production plan over twelve months, with a target of a guaranteed 15% increase in production.

The key challenges to doing this were:

the complex connectivity of the production facilities
the fact that, though a single site operation, production involved multi-product, multi-purpose equipment.

The combination of these two factors meant that effective production planning was virtually impossible without model-based optimisation.

PSE approach

PSE worked with the client to construct a model of the company's production facilities that included equipment constraints, connectivity, product recipes and demand scenarios.

This allowed determination of the maximum asset utilisation against envisaged product requirements for the year.

Results

The results are shown in the table below, which shows a clear enhancement (16%) in overall production, as well as on-target production on the high-value product.

Product	Previous year target	Previous year actual	This year target	This year actual
Product 1	60	50	60	60
High-value product	40	31.5	40	40.61
Product 2	15	11	15	11.68
Product 3	80	73	80	80
Total		165.5		192.3