The Aspen PIMS™ family is growing by leaps and bounds and is now used by over 400 refineries, olefins plants and engineering companies worldwide. The number of sites using Aspen PIMS-AO™ is, in fact, growing at a staggering rate, and adoption is catching on like wildfire.

 

Here are a few other statistics you might find interesting:

 

• An astounding 72 percent of the world’s refined barrels are optimized using the Aspen PIMS family of solutions, and 46 percent of those use Aspen PIMS-AO. So many refineries already trust Aspen PIMS, and so many more are adopting Aspen PIMS-AO to run their assets to the limits of performance.

• There’s a great community around the Aspen PIMS family, and AspenTech hosted over 200 members of this group at the Planning and Scheduling breakout for the OPTIMIZE 2017 global user conference — the largest gathering ever.  This community is very friendly and eager to help each other with best practices, support and knowledge –a ! 

• There’s also a track record of exceptional service, as 50 percent of Aspen PIMS and Aspen PIMS-AO clients have used the solutions for more than 15 years.

 

Aspen PIMS Gets the Job Done

 

With so many refineries and olefins plants adopting Aspen PIMS-AO steadily year after year, the numbers speak for themselves. Aspen PIMS has been (and now Aspen PIMS-AO is) the preferred tool for supply chain planning and optimization. 

 

As for ease of use, new planners usually do not have any formal training in refinery economics. Thus, Aspen PIMS classroom and online training is important to make sure your new planners know what they are doing. People sometimes compare learning Aspen PIMS to learning a process simulator like Aspen HYSYS^®, but a process engineer learns many of the skills needed to use a simulator at university — material balance, separations and the like. 

 

A planner learns refinery economics on the job, through company training courses and through AspenTech training. As we often say, planning is serious business. Do you want a planner with two weeks’ experience making multi-million-dollar decisions?

 

 

Looking to the Future

 

In mid-2017, we announced Aspen Unified PIMS™, the next-generation platform for our supply chain planning and scheduling solutions. If you’ve attended a recent AspenTech event, or joined our Innovation Club, you have probably already seen this exciting new addition to the Aspen PIMS family. 

 

This solution includes a flowsheet so that inexperienced users can easily understanding the model, while experienced users can see constraints and marginal values quickly. And we are hard at work to add even more functionality!  Also, take note that Aspen PIMS and Aspen PIMS-AO will be around for a long time, so you don’t have to worry about migration until you see the value in upgrading to Aspen Unified PIMS.

 

 

Aspen PIMS-AO in the Cloud

 

Aspen PIMS-AO has been successfully deployed in the cloud through a process called “cloud bursting,” where the model files reside locally and the cases are solved and executed in the cloud. Companies using this technique have seen truly impressive benefits, solving thousands of cases in minutes — about 100 times faster than Aspen PIMS-AO (which is about 10 times fast than Aspen PIMS). This speed will enable a whole new frontier of analysis and business risk management.

 

We see a lot of potential in the cloud, such as:

• Applications running on a company’s private cloud with AspenTech’s current architecture

• Remote desktop virtualization

• Virtualized servers for web-based applications

 

If you’re interested in learning more, I’m hosting a webinar with our director of product management, Zafar Ali, about AspenTech’s views on the future of petroleum supply chain on Tuesday, 11 September at 9 a.m. Houston time (10 a.m. EDT).  Register now to reserve your spot — hope to see you there!

 

I’m always looking to make new connections — feel free to contact me personally at patrick.garrett@aspentech.com or reach out to me on LinkedIn.