Written for
Plant scheduling, supply-chain planning and formulation R&D at a specialty or bulk chemicals maker.
Industry 3
Chemicals & process manufacturing
Plant scheduling, supply-chain planning and formulation R&D at a specialty or bulk chemicals maker.
The decision
Which production plan to run this shift; which formulation to make next.
How it is done today
Scheduling in spreadsheets or a legacy APS that takes hours to re-plan, so the plant runs yesterday’s plan.
When it goes wrong Every hour of re-planning is an hour of changeovers and due dates decided on stale data.
Applications
| Application | You give | You get | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production scheduling across grades and changeovers Proof: 6 h → 1 min, across 100+ product grades, in daily use | Grades, due dates and capacity | A checked plan in minutes | Deployed through the platform network |
| Nesting and job-shop scheduling (sheet, batch, multi-machine) | Jobs, machines and sequences | The sequence and the nesting | Deployed through the platform network |
| Formulation and additive candidate ranking Proof: Four of four formulations ranked correctly on IBM Heron, materials lane | Candidate molecules | A ranked list with the gaps | Live on quantum hardware |
| Catalyst and process-chemistry screening | Candidate catalysts or intermediates | A ranking with binding and activation energies | Ready · computed, hardware next |
| Revenue management and order acceptance | Orders, margins and capacity | Which orders to accept | Deployed through the platform network |
| Predictive maintenance on cable and rotating assets Proof: Early warning on cable breaks moved from 2 days to 5–7 days | Sensor history | Earlier warning | Deployed through the platform network |
What changes for you
- Re-plan on demand instead of once a shift.
- Formulations ranked before the pilot plant.
- A straight answer when your current solver already wins.
First engagement
You send One week of plant data: grades, orders, changeovers, capacity.
You get back The re-plan and the comparison with your current plan. Two weeks.
Proof · Production scheduling
Customer deployment · platform network
6 h → 1 min
production schedule across 100+ product grades, recalculated in 1–10 minutes instead of 2–6 hours
Platform networkPlatform classical optimisation solvers, through our platform networkDecision
Which production plan to run this shift
What is modelled
100+ product grades with changeovers, due dates and capacity, as a constrained scheduling model.
Operational outcome
- Re-planning on demand when conditions change
- Verification included in the run time
- In daily production use
- Problem size
- 100+ grades · one plant · minutes per re-plan
- Scope
- A classical optimisation deployment; quantum hardware was not used.
Results, each with its baseline
- Production scheduling across 100+ grades: 2–6 hours → 1–10 minutes including verification, in production use. Baseline: the plant's prior manual and spreadsheet planning.Platform networkWhere classical optimisation solvers, at the plant
- Formulation screening from the semiconductor row applies to specialty chemicals: candidates ranked on a quantum processor before any are made.Measured on quantum hardwareWhere IBM Heron, 156 qubits
Benchmark
Chemicals & process manufacturingProduction scheduling
Published reference
No published production-scheduling result on quantum hardware at industrial scale; visible results are challenge prototypes.
Sources: arXiv:2411.10303
Merlin
6 h → 1 min across 100+ grades, in production (classical optimisation, platform network)
Platform networkBaseline
The plant's prior manual and spreadsheet planning
Read the story
Through our platform network
Client anonymised to its sector; partner not named; metric quoted with its published baseline, compute type and status. Not our own measurement.
Chemicals / manufacturing
Chemical-plant production planning
Planning time 2–6 h → 1–10 min, including verification
- Condition
- Baseline: the prior manual or spreadsheet planning. Multi-grade (100+ grades) scheduling. Self-reported in a customer interview.
- Compute
- Classical solvers · no quantum hardware
- Status
- Field, in production use
Through our platform network · partner and client not named
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