According to leading industry analyst firm ARC, “AspenTech is helping a variety of end users in China succeed with digital transformation to increase manufacturing cost competitiveness and drive higher levels of operational excellence by making assets more reliable.”

 

We appreciate the vote of confidence from ARC, given their depth of expertise in the industries we serve. In their January 2019 report, "AspenTech OPTIMIZE China 2018 Event Highlights Benefits of Digital Transformation," ARC analyst David Cao notes that China’s commodity chemical industry is changing. He points to China National Bureau of Statistics data that shows a decline in CAPEX spending of 5.2 percent — about $227 billion — in 2017 compared to the year prior, while production volumes increased 2.7 percent. Industry in China is facing overcapacity in many sectors and therefore is “shifting from being investment-driven to being operational efficiency-driven.”

These figures also lie within the context of China’s overall economic outlook, as the country’s growth rate has dropped to the slowest pace seen in decades, making efficiency even more critical in the face of an uncertain future.

The 700 attendees from more than 460 leading Chinese companies who made their way to the OPTIMIZE China event in October 2018 are now on paths to digitally transform their critical equipment, plants and production systems. AspenTech President and CEO Antonio Pietri and Sinopec Director of Information System Management Li Defang presented keynotes at the event focused on accelerating digital transformation to achieve sustainable operational excellence.

Each mapped out how leading companies are already putting smart plants into operation and achieving new levels of profitability through well-defined, long-term asset optimization strategies. Li also looked at the state of smart manufacturing in China today and examined what it will look like in the future.

The ARC report highlighted these key takeaways from Antonio’s presentation:

• “Aspen Knowledge is a comprehensive training offering designed to help customers overcome a growing knowledge gap and accelerate their ability to solve the most complex engineering and operational challenges.”

• Through acquisitions and organic in-house R&D, AspenTech continues to develop its Asset Performance Management (APM) software suite, which includes solutions for reliability management, multivariate analysis, root cause analysis and machine learning-driven prescriptive maintenance. Most recently, the addition of the Aspen Connect™ family of edge and cloud software solutions creates a sustainable industrial internet of things (IIoT) infrastructure.

• The strategic framework cooperation agreement with China National Bluestar (Group) Co. will broaden the deployment of software for process simulation and advanced process control company-wide. A China National Chemical Corporation strategic business unit, Bluestar has 58 production bases, 69 research institutes, four overseas subsidiaries and three listed companies, offering chemical materials and specialty chemical products in 200 countries and regions.

At OPTIMIZE China, Bluestar subsidiary Jiangxi Xinghuo Organic Silicon (Asia’s largest organic silicon manufacturer, with total production capacity of 400,000 tons per year) presented on the company’s implementation of AspenTech APC software in two distillation units (100,000 and 200,000 tons capacity). This resulted in approximately $6 million in benefits per year from raw materials and energy savings, as well as improving safety and product quality, by driving higher levels of operational excellence by optimizing across the asset lifecycle.

The ARC report also covered several reasons companies are selecting AspenTech as a partner to help them accelerate their digital transformation: “In addition to its proven commitment to developing and delivering advanced technology laser-focused on driving higher levels of operational excellence, AspenTech also brings best practices and domain knowledge to China’s commodity chemical industry and other process industries.”

To learn more about the game-changing opportunities provided by advanced technologies, read the executive brief Digital Acceleration Opens a New Frontier of Value Creation by AspenTech President and CEO Antonio Pietri.

You can also download the full ARC report.