New imperatives for sustainability and energy efficiency. Stricter regulatory requirements for monitoring compliance. New global suppliers and changing product demand. Constant pressure to manage risk, customer relationships, and health, safety and environment (HSE).
Challenges like these are forcing refiners and petrochemical manufacturers to change the way their facilities meet soaring energy demand. With refineries already running at maximum capacity, unplanned downtime has a ripple effect throughout the supply chain. Unexpectedly taking a facility out of production can severely cut into margins that are already razor-thin.
As a result, the stakes have never been higher for refiners and petrochemical manufacturers to boost efficiency, safety and regulatory compliance for maximum productivity. Better planning and coordination of feedstock can optimize factory utilization and throughput, while helping to keep inventories low and stay aligned with end-product demand. Anticipating and troubleshooting problems before they occur can eliminate days of costly shutdowns.
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. Aggregating data from disparate sources and providing dashboard views can help operators decide whether to purchase crude on the open market, plan production to take advantage of emerging opportunities, and optimize forecasting models.
Communication and collaboration tools can help workers anticipate, troubleshoot and resolve problems quickly, thereby avoiding unplanned downtime.
Microsoft and its Partners Can Help
Partner solutions leverage core Microsoft technologies such as business intelligence, productivity, collaboration, and mobility, which help your people transcend traditional barriers, make better decisions faster and achieve greater efficiency.
Equipment specifications, maintenance and performance records, and forecasting and trading information can roll up into dashboards, workflows and task lists for better planning. Role-based communication and collaboration tools ensure 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 refiners and petrochemical manufacturers maximum visibility and control over manufacturing operations.
Maximizing Control
Microsoft is committed to helping refineries and petrochemical 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 your people have the information they need at the right time, through an intuitive, accessible user interface. Microsoft enables our Oil and Gas industry partners to focus on your specific business challenges while leveraging our expertise in universal business needs like security, performance, accessibility and collaboration. The result is your complete solution for taking control of manufacturing operations to make better decisions, avoid unnecessary downtime, maximize resource deployment, and increase overall profitability.
New economic and operating pressures are increasing the pressure on refiners and petrochemical manufacturers to reduce already tight margins. With increased visibility into operations, manufacturers can gain greater control over cost and improve efficiencies of scale. Microsoft and its partners deliver business and technology solutions that enhance role-based productivity by gathering relevant data from plant systems and delivering it to the people who need it, in real time, to improve insights, decision making and ultimately performance.
Bottom-Line Value
Manufacturing Operations solutions from Microsoft and its partners empower your business to:
Change product portfolios and adjust to supply and demand changes
Improve efficiency, allow quicker responsiveness to market needs, and manage inventory
Increase visibility into the supply chain
Make more informed decisions
Avoid unnecessary downtime
Anticipate and proactively resolve issues
Improve customer satisfaction and response to emerging needs
Facilitate compliance with industry and regulatory standards from OSHA, REACH, ISA, OPC Foundation, OASIS and other organizations
