Chemicals solutions that allow manufacturers to reduce operating costs through utility optimization, waste reduction and increased customer service. New supply chain functionality helps manufacturers differentiate themselves from competitors by being able to repeat and confidently commit to customized production runs of products by linking detailed process analysis with advanced supply chain applications. Polymers solutions that reduce costs and inventories and increase efficiency through specialized modeling and optimization capabilities that take into account the unique challenges of polymer manufacturing, such as transition times and methods. New functionality includes advanced process control systems tailored to the polymer manufacturing process. Batch Chemicals  solutions that enable manufacturers to quickly design and scale up new processes by capturing and sharing detailed knowledge of complex multi-stage production processes via Web-based models. Specialized supply chain functionality enables planners to simultaneously reduce inventories and increase customer responsiveness and on-time deliveries by managing supply and demand across multiple plants and more accurately predicting raw material requirements for hundreds of ingredients. Pharmaceuticals solutions that increase the benefits received from patents by designing manufacturing strategies that shorten the time from design to production. These solutions also help to minimize the time and effort required to comply with government regulations by automating and digitizing production data collection and reporting. Consumer Goods solutions that enable manufacturers to implement demand-driven supply chain strategies and increase customer service with lower inventories through real- time inventory visibility and the ability to re-optimize production plans hourly, versus weekly or monthly, based on demand data from retail customers. “AspenTech is enabling Degussa to leverage its long-term  investment in  process knowledge capture by facilitating an  achievable corporate standard for  modeling and optimization .” —Ralf Janowsky Director of Computer-Aided Process Engineering Degussa 1 7