Case Studies Owens Corning Standardizes on Aspen Plant Scheduler and Receives Rapid Deployment Results
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Owens Corning Standardizes on Aspen Plant Scheduler and Receives Rapid Deployment Results

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Buildings
Construction & Infrastructure
Discrete Manufacturing
Quality Assurance
Manufacturing System Automation
Predictive Waste Reduction
Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration
Owens Corning, a global leader in insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites, aimed to implement a scheduling solution for its roofing and insulation manufacturing businesses. The goal was to eliminate legacy tools and quickly provide a solution that met the distinct challenges of each business. For the roofing business, the challenges included modifying scheduling settings for products and periods of supply, and using a product wheel for the sequencing of products that consider changeover considerations in the setup mix. For the insulation business, the challenges were to minimize raw materials waste when manufacturing different SKUs of insulation, determine the best co-products to make that will meet demand and minimize excess trim, and schedule long runs that promote steady-state operations and reduce the need for changeovers.
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Owens Corning is a global company that develops, manufactures, and markets insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites. The company's market-leading businesses use their expertise in materials, manufacturing, and building science to develop products and systems that save energy and improve comfort in commercial and residential buildings. Founded in 1938, Owens Corning has been a Fortune 500® company for 61 consecutive years. The company's goal was to implement a scheduling solution for its roofing and insulation manufacturing businesses that eliminated legacy tools and quickly provided a solution that met the distinct challenges of each business.
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Owens Corning standardized on Aspen Plant Scheduler for both the roofing and insulation divisions using a phased deployment approach. During implementation, schedulers and business users provided input to define requirements for roofing and insulation businesses. As a result, Aspen Plant Scheduler was configured to incorporate constraints that are common across all businesses, such as sequence-dependent setups, as well as site-specific requirements, for example co-products that are unique to a particular business. This allowed a standard solution to be deployed across multiple business units, with a library of features that could be activated/deactivated to meet the needs of the business. After the initial rollout of Aspen Plant Scheduler, more high-value enhancements were needed for the roofing models. Two additional capabilities were added, including ABC scheduling and sequencing via a manufacturing wheel.
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Created a feasible schedule in minutes
Determined the best options for large changes in supply or demand
Visualized projected inventory curves to trim production as needed
Short implementation time of 12 weeks for 14 roofing models and 8 weeks for 12 insulation models
Development time for new functionality was less than 10 days
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