Successful delivery of Production Scheduling Optimisation at Luberef, Saudi Arabia

(Dec 2018) Following a rapid development and delivery schedule, Hyperion Consulting successfully conducted in December 2018 the Site Acceptance Testing and Commissioning of the Production Scheduling Optimization solution at Saudi Aramco Base Oil Company – LUBEREF.   Originally established as a joint venture (JV) between Saudi Aramco and Mobil, LUBEREF operates two manufacturing facilities, in Jeddah and Yanbu and is the largest producer of Lubricants serving the local Saudi Arabian market as well as an exporter in the GCC region.

Building on a proof-of-concept prototype built in 2016 based on Aspen Plant Scheduler (formerly known as Aspen MIMI) the project included the conversion of the prototype model to a controlled scope, yet comprehensive scheduling solution that took into consideration all important operational, logistics and production constraints of LUBEREF. The solution also included the development of an underlying database (HypeDV) which integrates the scheduling application with external systems such as LIMS, ERP and the plants’ real-time data historian, as well as serving as a collaborative S&OE platform enabling various stakeholder groups such as marketing and planning to interact with the system.

The delivered solution has been submitted and is intended to be showcased during the upcoming AspenTech OPTIMIZE 2019 conference. Also, after allowing the users to utilize the solution for a few months and gather their feedback, LUBEREF and Hyperion Consulting plan to further enhance the system with a Phase-II project.