Find optimal Production Schedules fast using Artificial Intelligence

Written by Joseph McMullen, Senior Marketing Manager, Value Chain Optimization, AVEVA

Refinery scheduling is a high-stress job, with many demands on time and attention due to unexpected events. Schedulers often struggle even to maintain operationally feasibility, let alone optimise throughput, align with production plans, or meet environmental or emissions targets.

Legacy software support for these tasks effectively takes the form of customised calculators, which allow the scheduler to change the timing or nature of an activity, such as the transfer of material from one tank to another, and to see the impact of that change. Some basic optimization may be included, but very often, the change will result in infeasibilities, such as tank overflows, or unsuitable process unit feed rates. The scheduler may manually try a different change, until the schedule is feasible. These re-simulations are typically slow, taking seconds, or even minutes, leading to a loss of user focus. Worse still, business critical steers, such as meeting specific product demands, let alone environmental targets, are often low down the list of priorities, when even feasibility is difficult and time-consuming to achieve. Schedulers often stick to tried-and-tested approaches, potentially missing out on better options.

However, there is a better way that uses Artificial Intelligence! It is called AVEVA Schedule AI Assistant!

AVEVA Schedule AI Assistant is a step-change for schedulers as it rapidly generates and presents to the user multiple Optimized Schedules which navigate through complex operational constraints guided by economic objectives. This is transforming days of schedulers work into seconds, allowing them to input their human intelligence as they steer the generation of schedules and analyse the resulting fully detailed optimized operating scenarios.

It is thanks to our unique blend of Cloud/AI/Simulation and Optimization technologies Schedulers are now freed from the need to use what are in effect glorified calculators to preform very low-level repetitive trial and error, transforming Scheduling to proactive strategic scenario analysis.

AVEVA Schedule AI Assistant promises several innovations in the industry:

• Reducing the software burden for schedulers, by offering a higher-level, human-comprehensible scheduling environment.
• Defining schedules in terms of scheduling intent, rather than low-level activities.
• Supporting schedulers to go beyond just feasible schedules, to aligning schedules with production plans and environmental targets etc.
• Offering multiple feasible schedules, leaving the final choices to the scheduler. The deep experience of the scheduler is complemented by the best computable solutions.

What does this mean to you? A Scheduling application that works for you, helping your Schedulers find optimal fast.

Let the AI-Infused software quickly run the scenarios and guide you to the best schedule for your refinery. That way you can focus on the other high priority items on your to-do list.

Imagine a world where in real-time OSI Pi has captured deviation in your operations automatically triggering Schedule AI Assistant which has then automatically producing several optimised recommendations then alerted you for analysis. Maximising your ability to re-optimise at a moment’s notice. Its where we are going.

We are proud to announce that AVEVA™ Schedule AI Assistant has been selected as a finalist for HP Award 2021 for best AR/VR/AI TECHNOLOGY.