Westlake Realizes Benefits from AspenTech Solutions; Expands Supply Chain and Engineering Licenses
Licenses AspenTech's planning, scheduling, demand management and simulation software
Aspen Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZPN) today announced that Westlake Group, a global supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and fabricated products, has expanded its supply chain and engineering solutions licenses across the company's 16 North American plants. The new generation of solutions will build on the benefits Westlake has already realized from using AspenTech's solutions for the past five years.(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000811/ASPENLOGO )
"AspenTech has enabled us to fulfill our mission of efficiently providing quality products and services to commodity chemical, plastics and related fabricated products markets," said Warren Wilder, vice president of Westlake Polymers. "Its solutions have enabled us to increase our productivity and improve customer service."
Westlake Group's operations manufacture and market over 4 billions pounds annually of the world's most widely used petrochemicals and polymer products. Its customers utilize Westlake products for diverse applications in the chemical, plastics, consumer and food packaging, construction materials, personal care and automotive industries.
AspenTech's supply chain technology includes planning, scheduling and modeling solutions that provide Westlake with better visibility of customer demand, making more detailed sales and ordering information accessible to its plants. The availability of more precise demand forecasts allows Westlake to optimize schedules and better manage customer delivery requests in addition to generating more accurate raw materials orders.
AspenTech's simulation solution gives Westlake engineers a "virtual plant" that is used to maximize the return from the company's existing plant assets by improving operational efficiency. By creating a large-scale, real-time simulation model, Westlake engineers can validate process designs, study operability, verify control configurations and train operators in safe and efficient plant operation prior to start-up.
"Westlake has been a valued partner for nearly five years and we are looking forward to building on that strong relationship," said David McQuillin, Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of AspenTech. "Our supply chain and engineering solutions provide hard economic benefits that can be measured in a short period of time, which is critical as process manufacturers look to make IT investments in solutions that can provide significant productivity improvements and return on investment in this environment."
AspenTech's engineering suite of products is the company's solution for Process Asset Lifecycle Management (PALM), which helps process companies reduce the cost of capital projects and improve the operating performance of plant assets. AspenTech's supply chain technologies are a key component of the company's solution for Value Chain Management (VCM), which helps customers run their supply chain and manufacturing operations to drive improved margins.
About The Westlake Group
The Westlake Group is a premium supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and fabricated plastics to the international marketplace. The company employs more than 1900 people and manufactures a full range of resins, which are found in plastic packaging and coatings for bakery goods and produce, house wares, toys, laundry and dry cleaning bags, and juice and milk containers.
About AspenTech
Aspen Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of enterprise software to the process industries, enabling its customers to increase their margins and optimize their business performance. AspenTech's engineering solutions, incorporating Hyprotech's technologies, help companies design and improve their plants and processes, maximizing returns throughout their operational life. AspenTech's supply chain manufacturing solutions allow companies to run their plants and supply chain more profitably, from customer demand through to the delivery of the finished product. Over 1,200 leading companies rely on AspenTech's software every day to drive improvements across their most important engineering and operational processes. AspenTech's customers include: Air Liquide, AstraZeneca, Bayer, BASF, BP, ChevronTexaco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Lyondell Equistar, Merck, Mitsubishi Chemical, Shell and Unilever. For more information, visit www.aspentech.com.
Certain paragraphs of this press release contain forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, any statement using the term "will," "should," "could," "anticipates," "believes" or a comparable term is a forward-looking statement. Actual results may vary significantly from AspenTech's expectations based on a number of risks and uncertainties, including: AspenTech's lengthy sales cycle which makes it difficult to predict quarterly operating results; fluctuations in AspenTech's quarterly operating results; AspenTech's dependence on customers in the cyclical chemicals, petrochemicals and petroleum industries; AspenTech's need to hire additional qualified personnel and its dependence on key current employees; intense competition; AspenTech's dependence on systems integrators and other strategic partners; changes in the market for e-business solutions for AspenTech's customers; increased governmental regulation and taxation of e-commerce and the Internet; information security and privacy concerns relating to e-commerce; and other risk factors described from time to time in AspenTech's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AspenTech cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Moreover, neither AspenTech nor anyone else assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any forward-looking statements. AspenTech undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.
AspenTech and the aspen leaf logo are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
Contacts:
For Media:
Peter Watt Carin Warner
Aspen Technology, Inc. Warner Communications
+44 1223 819-752 (978) 526-1960
peter.watt@aspentech.com carin@warnerpr.com
D.R. Hansen
Westlake Group
(713) 960-9111
dhansen@westlakegroup.com
For Investors:
Joshua Young
Aspen Technology, Inc.
(617) 949-1274
joshua.young@aspentech.com
SOURCE Aspen Technology, Inc.
CONTACT:
Media: Peter Watt of Aspen Technology, Inc., +44 1223 819-752,
peter.watt@aspentech.com; or Carin Warner of Warner Communications,
+1-978- 526-1960, carin@warnerpr.com; or Investors: Joshua Young of Aspen
Technology, Inc., +1-617-949-1274, joshua.young@aspentech.com; or D.R. Hansen
of Westlake Group, +1-713-960-9111, dhansen@westlakegroup.com
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