Westlake Polymers LDPE Operation Cuts Inventories, Improves Customer Service with AspenTech's Solution
Innovative solution links front-end ordering with manufacturing to cost- effectively meet customer demand
Aspen Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZPN) today announced that Westlake Polymers Corporation, one of The Westlake Group of Companies, has implemented a supply chain optimization solution for its low density polyethylene (LDPE) operation that is minimizing inventories, strengthening on-time delivery performance and decreasing production of off-spec products.(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000811/ASPENLOGO )
By creating a close connection between Westlake's customer service team in Houston, Texas and its manufacturing operations in Lake Charles, LA, the AspenTech solution is expected to generate significant annual benefits. It is already reducing production of off-spec products and helping Westlake maintain inventory levels well below the industry norm.
"AspenTech's supply chain solution enables us to link our customer service managers, plant schedulers and production managers for the benefit of our customers," said Warren Wilder, Vice President of Westlake Polymers. "The technology helps us to provide these key groups with the real-time information they need to optimize production, scheduling and delivery relative to client demand. This improved responsiveness helps us to reduce costs across our internal value chain."
Westlake began implementation in May 2000 and has now rolled out the AspenTech solution in two of its three polyethylene plants. The solution -- which integrates with Westlake's SAP order entry system, its ACTA data warehousing system, and its in-house quality control system -- provides the company 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 reactor schedules and better manage customer delivery requests. Additional cost savings also stem from more accurate ordering of raw materials, resulting in less surplus stocks.
"Westlake has developed a visionary information technology strategy, integrating its front-end order systems with its manufacturing operations," said Larry Evans, Chairman and CEO of AspenTech. "By using supply chain technology to bring its plants closer to the customer, the company is able to both minimize costs and improve service."
For the past four years, AspenTech has been providing a variety of asset optimization and supply chain solutions to The Westlake Group of Companies, involving Westlake Polymers Corporation, Westlake Petrochemicals Corporation, and The Titan Group, a sister company of The Westlake Group.
About The Westlake Group
The Westlake Group is a premium supplier of olefins and polyolefins to the international marketplace. The company employs more than 500 people in the Lake Charles, La. area and manufactures a full range of resins, which are found in plastic packaging and coatings for bakery goods and produce, housewares, toys, laundry and dry cleaning bags, and juice and milk containers.
About AspenTech
Aspen Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of integrated software and solutions to the process industries. The company's Aspen ProfitAdvantage(TM) solution enables companies to identify and maximize profit opportunities throughout their entire value chain -- from the supply of raw materials, through the production of goods, to the delivery of final products to customers. The Aspen ProfitAdvantage solution encompasses engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and e-business collaboration technologies, providing the tools that enable manufacturers to design, optimize and execute business processes in real time. Over 1,200 leading process companies already rely on AspenTech's 21 years of process industry experience to increase revenues, reduce costs and improve capital efficiency. AspenTech's customers include: Air Liquide, AstraZeneca, Bayer, BASF, BP, Chevron, Dow Chemical, DuPont, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Lyondell Equistar, Merck, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Unilever. For more information, visit http://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, Aspen ProfitAdvantage, and the aspen leaf logo are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
Contact:
For Media:
Peter Watt Carin Warner
Aspen Technology, Inc. Warner Communications
+44 1223 819-752 1 (978) 526-1960
peter.watt@aspentech.com carin@warnerpr.com
For Investors:
Joshua Young
Aspen Technology, Inc.
1 (617) 949-1274
joshua.young@aspentech.com
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SOURCE Aspen Technology, Inc.
CONTACT: For 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 For Investors: Joshua Young of Aspen
Technology, Inc., +1-617-949-1274, joshua.young@aspentech.com
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