Pressure to Improve Performance
The process manufacturing industries are one of the most competitive and dynamic in manufacturing, and companies must evolve to meet the challenges of shifting global demand, the commoditization of products, and pricing volatility in energy, raw materials, and feedstocks.
Added to these are new imperatives for sustainability and energy efficiency as companies are under constant pressure to manage risk; customer relationships; and health, safety, and environmental (HSE) issues. These challenges affect the way process manufacturers operate, and optimizing plant operations to reduce costs is a top priority for global chemical companies.
No plant operates in isolation, and having a global production network adds complexity to the operation. The stakes have never been higher for process manufacturers to boost quality, efficiency, safety, and regulatory compliance for maximum productivity. Anticipating problems and proactively taking action to prevent them can eliminate waste in the value chain.
Visibility Is Key
Maximizing control of manufacturing operations means empowering your people with the knowledge and tools to take the right action at the right time. For example, aggregating data from disparate sources and providing dashboard views can help operations optimize production and monitor performance.
Communication and collaboration tools can help workers avoid, detect and resolve problems quickly, thereby avoiding unplanned downtime.
Microsoft and Its Partners Can Help
Microsoft and partner solutions capitalize on core Microsoft technologies such as business intelligence, collaboration, unified communications, and mobility, which empower your people to transcend traditional barriers, make better decisions faster, and achieve greater efficiency.
Information from a variety of sources - including production, quality, energy, assets, and compliance - is aggregated into dashboards, connected to workflows, and added to task lists for better planning and execution. Role-based communication and collaboration tools ensure that the right people can access the information they need to manage resources and downtime proactively. Together, these solutions make it possible to visualize operations and collaborate in real time to give process manufacturers maximum visibility and control over manufacturing operations.
Microsoft is committed to helping process manufacturers maximize productivity. Our platform technologies provide a framework for interoperability and tight integration among disparate data sources and applications, transforming information into actionable knowledge. Collaboration and role-based productivity tools help ensure that your people have the information they need at the right time, through an intuitive, accessible user interface.
By using Microsoft solutions, our process industry partners can focus on your specific business challenges while taking advantage of our expertise in universal business needs like security, performance, accessibility, and collaboration. The result is a complete solution for taking control of manufacturing operations to make better decisions, avoid unnecessary downtime, maximize resource deployment, and increase overall profitability.
For more on our petrochemical manufacturing operations solution, please see the Refining and Petrochemicals Operations page.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Key Benefits
- Change product portfolios and adjust to supply and demand changes.
- Improve efficiency, allow quicker response to market needs, and manage inventory.
- Increase visibility into production.
- Make better decisions faster.
- Anticipate and proactively resolve issues.
- Avoid unnecessary downtime.
- Improve customer satisfaction and response to emerging needs.
- Facilitate compliance with industry and regulatory standards.