In the current chemical business downcycle, small changes can make the difference between negative and positive margins at your aromatics facility. As more and more massive, state of the art plants are being commissioned, benchmarking your aromatics units ensure your facility is keeping pace with the global best performers.
Solomon's Worldwide Aromatics Plants Performance Analysis (Aromatics Study) delivers a global perspective on the performance highs and lows of all your units, regardless of location, starting with your aggregate complex performance and moving down in granularity to the level of the individual unit. The study includes performance peer groups from aromatics complexes around the world.
Solomon's insights led to actionable changes that strengthened our competitive position. MAJOR OPERATORRead the News Release
Return on investment for study participation can be attained by closing just 0.1% of identified gaps.
- How does my gross margin compare to the global industry?
- How reliable are my facilities in comparison to my top performing peers?
- How effective is my maintenance program in driving a reliable operation?
- Where should I focus to reduce my energy usage?
- How do my operating expenses compare to others in my region and to global top performers?
Solomon experts understand aromatics facilities can vary in size, complexity, product slate, technology, and throughput. The Aromatics Study employs patented methodologies to compare different facilities, providing competitive assessments in different areas to provide an accurate comparison of diverse operations and better focus performance improvement efforts. A detailed understanding of your competitive strengths and weaknesses will help you to formulate prioritized and effective improvement programs.
The Aromatics Study will provide key areas of improvement to increase your margin performance through operational cost savings or yield enhancements.
Figure 1. Net Cash Margin Gap Analysis
The common saying “Process Safety Pays” emphasizes the idea that robust process safety management boosts profitability by preventing catastrophic accidents, reducing operational risks, and avoiding or minimizing significant financial and reputational damage. Investing in a strong safety culture and competent staff improves and directly impacts a company's bottom line. Solomon’s Aromatics Study will provide insight into your standing against industry peers.
Figure 2. Process Safety Incident Rate
Solomon's aromatics presentation helped us better understand the metrics and where we should focus our improvement efforts. MAJOR OPERATOR
Why Participate?
Assess detailed competitive position
Identify actionable performance gaps and set improvement targets
Provide justifications for capital investment and staffing plans
Measure the progress of improvement activities
Demonstrate performance to joint-venture partners and financial institutions
Study Deliverables
Study participants will receive the following for each plant:
Performance rankings on a global, regional, and peer group basis for all performance areas
Solomon’s proprietary metrics and indicators for all performance areas
Metrics and indicators for all peer groups
Assessment of both whole-complex performance and individual units
A gap analysis versus global high-performing peers
Areas of Focus
Process Utilization
Maintenance (Turnaround and Non-Turnaround)
Mechanical and Operational Availability
Energy (Net Energy, Energy Intensity Index and Energy Sustainability Index)
Emissions (Carbon Emissions Index)
Personnel (Cost and Efficiency)
Cash Operating Expense (Total and Non-Energy)
Operating Data by Process Unit
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Learn How You Can Participate
Obtain a clear picture of your competitive position with data-driven, actionable insight. Join the Aromatics Study and receive the decision support you need for your performance improvement efforts. We can help you prioritize focus areas for improvement, set targets, implement plans, and track KPIs on an ongoing basis.
A Foundation for Effective Comparative Performance Analysis and Decision Support
We prioritize the integrity and confidentiality of participant-submitted data and rigorously review that data before benchmarking begins. Then, we employ our normalization process and benchmarking methodology to provide valuable and trusted peer group comparisons that deliver meaningful KPIs. Finally, our staff of senior consultants apply their deep industry experience to develop practical insight and recommendations to enable your success.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
A: The Worldwide Aromatics Plants Performance Analysis (Aromatics Study) uses Solomon’s proprietary Comparative Performance Analysis™ (CPA™) methodology along with a global perspective to the manufacturing performance of all your aromatics units to provide superior insight into key drivers of sustainable high performance and improvement opportunities in the areas of energy efficiency, reliability and maintenance effectiveness, personnel costs, workforce size and productivity, capacity utilization, and OpEx.
A: Aromatics facilities can join the Aromatics Study in one of two different ways: Stand Alone – These facilities will provide Solomon with their detailed operational data. Collecting and reviewing this data will require approximately 200 hours of client time but will provide highly precise results on your facilities’ results. Fuels Addendum – For those facilities connected to a refinery within the Fuels Study, the aromatics data can be added to the fuels input form. There is no extra data collection requirement in this way. Solomon will then utilize our proprietary extraction model to review your aromatics facility.
A: The current chemicals market is in one of the worst downturns in over a decade. Although not benchmarking may seem like an easy way to cut costs, it can actually be detrimental in the long term. Why should you continue to benchmark? The standard of performance for the world’s best will continue to improve through this downturn. Is your facility keeping pace or falling behind? The new facilities coming online will transform the competitive landscape. These state-of-the-art facilities are massive and are built with a lower cost structure. Although everyone is facing the same business environment, there will be winners and losers. Small improvements during this time can have a big financial impact.
A. In response to the current business environment, the Aromatics Study is focusing on two of the biggest influences for your facilities’ net cast margin. Gross Margin Maximization – The Aromatics Study will help to maximize your gross margin by providing a review of your feedstock characteristics and molecule placement. Energy Management – By comparing each piece of your aromatics kit against its relative benchmark, the Aromatics Study will tell you where to concentrate your resources to obtain the maximum impact.
A: The Aromatics Study is open to any number or combination of the following process units: Gasoline Hydrotreating, Aromatics Extraction, Benzene/Toluene/Xylenes Fractionation, Naphtha Hydrotreating, Naphtha Fractionation, Catalytic Reforming, Reformate Fractionation, Toluene Disproportionation, Toluene Transalkylation, Hydrodealkylation, Para-Xylene Separation, Ortho-Xylene Separation, Xylenes Isomerization, Cumene, Cyclohexane, or Ethylbenzene.
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