BASF plugs naphtha cracker units into the market

London - BASF AG is employing Invensys’ new automated Real-time Finance product at its two main naphtha steamcrackers facilities in Europe. The software is operating on top of control systems from Invensys at the chemical company’s headquarters site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and from Honeywell at its other flagship site in Antwerp, Belgium.

The worldscale naphtha crackers are at the heart of the two BASF’s integrated chemical sites are used for the manufacture of products such as ethylene, propylene, isobutylene, butadiene and other aromatic and non-aromatic organic chemicals.

Both BASF sites source naphtha in a range of grades from the open market. The new software helps production engineers to determine the impact of running specific naphtha grades on the business performance of the site - rather than just plant efficiency.

Real-time Finance basically simplifies the exchange of data between InFusion and SAP, explains Hartmut Wallraf, chief technology officer, Invensys Process Systems - EMEA. Process operators, he said, have previously relied on Excel spreadsheets for managing such data, with the disadvantages of people interpreting it differently ‹ and on a nine-to-five shift basis.

Invensys, describes Real-time Finance as “packaged composite applications”(PCAs) for process plants, com ining its InFusion real-time accounting with elements of real-time finance. The software was certified by SAP in March 2007 based on its xMII (Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence) offering that allows integration to the plant floor and related support systems as well as connection to the enterprise layer.

Connected to the xMII, the Real-time Finance PCA links into the SAP ERP environment in the SAP/R3 product, where it interfaces with modules such as finance, production planning, plant maintenance, quality management and health & safety.

According to Invensys, the software enables process companies to plan work orders, check production and human resources, run manufacturing schedules, release work orders, close orders, and implement shipping and logistics.

The product is also designed to enable direct reporting of real-time events and alerts, order status, charge rates, life of inventory, yields, completions and usage, start and stop times, among other variables.

Real-time Finance is a single application to manage production data across traditionally separate domains, claims Invensys. It enables customers to align their business objectives and processes with manufacturing operation processes, and increases customer responsiveness and agility for completing the real-time demand & supply chain, the vendor added.