‘Catalyzing the Future’ provides guidance on how best to tackle sustainability challenges
Toby Ingleton |
Microsoft has released a new whitepaper exploring the current trends and challenges within the chemical manufacturing industry.
Entitled Catalyzing the Future, the whitepaper provides guidance for chemical manufacturers on how best to address the sustainability challenges they face at present.
“The chemical industry has always been at the forefront of innovation,” said Egbert Schröer, worldwide managing director, Process Manufacturing and Resources Industry at Microsoft. “From large-scale chemical production implementations that led the first industrial revolution, to today’s technology-driven transformation steered by industry consolidation, new business models and broad digitalisation, chemical manufacturers are leaders in catalysing the digital future. We have now reached another inflection point for the chemical industry, one driven by the urgency of our declining natural resources, the growing demand for food, and environmental concerns. Consumers are demanding more advanced and personalised products and services focused on sustainability, transparency and trust.”
Schröer says that shorter innovation cycles, on-demand mass customisation, shrinking margins and resource scarcity are all forcing chemical manufacturers to think about embracing more sustainable and innovative economic practices.
“Technology plays an increasingly strategic role in fostering innovation, sustainable practices, and differentiation in the marketplace,” said Schröer. “Advanced technological capabilities –including artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced and predictive analytics, and blockchain – allow chemical manufacturers to transform their business processes to enable systems of intelligence that draw better insight from data and convert it to intelligent action. These systems are what will define an organisation’s competitiveness and ability to change the entire chemical industry landscape.”
The whitepaper offers chemical manufacturers advice on the best ways to predict market trends, shorten cycles of innovation, enable a new level of responsiveness in production, embrace an as-a-service business model and address material scarcity in a circular economy.
The Catalyzing the Future whitepaper is available here.