The consistent use of process models during the entire process life cycle - from process development to plant operation has been an ever strived for goal in industrial practice and in research in the last decades. One of the main success factors with regard to economic viability is the reduction of the modelling effort. This contribution illustrates an example from industry, where an existing steady-state process model in the BASF SE in-house simulation program CHEMASIM is used as an online application. The process model is updated regularly with measurement data from an actual chemical plant, thus embodying a technology platform for real-time optimization and process monitoring. Important aspects, as seen from an industrial perspective, are discussed herein to motivate further research activities.