chemical suppliers supply chains are getting closer to excellence

We integrate new digital solutions into three areas:

Transparency. These digital technologies improve the transparency of the whole supply chain by connecting internal and external data sources and building meaningful information. They often have powerful visualization and social media components to enhance collaboration among supply chain employees, both within the company and with partners. Such a solution can provide the company with dashboard and transportation route details, such as expected arrival time, actual transportation time and on-time performance, link the data of logistics suppliers with the company's transportation orders, and provide online collaboration tools for all parties.

End to end planning. These technologies enhance transparency, enhance the planning process, and provide advanced decision support for the end-to-end supply chain. For example, they allow chemical suppliers to see expected performance in specific areas of the supply chain, such as in a single distribution center or manufacturing location, and identify the best steps to improve performance. Unlike traditional advanced planning systems, these new tools are flexible and dynamic, allowing companies to incrementally set them up and change them if necessary. In addition, these tools usually write planning decisions directly into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to ensure the implementation of any adjustments.

Specific activities. These next generation tools are tailored to solve and execute specific supply chain processes. They include tools for warehousing, transportation management and logistics processing and commissioning. Tools for specific activities usually utilize data from multiple sources and provide an intuitive and mobile user interface. For example, the new warehouse management system collects detailed data about warehouse operation status and creates a digital twin model to provide visual overview and advanced support for job scheduling and prioritization for operation managers.

For a particular company, the most appropriate type and use of these new digital solutions depends largely on the maturity of the supply chain. In a less mature supply chain, the infrastructure will not allow companies to implement state-of-the-art tools. Instead, the company will need to use digital solutions to handle basic tasks, such as filling gaps in inventory or sales figures. It also requires the use of digital tools to address previously overlooked issues such as poor data transparency or the need for a repository or "data Lake" designed to hold raw data in its native format.

After having a deep understanding of the 20 elements of the framework, the next step for chemical suppliers is to determine the priority theme according to their specific situation. The first step is to comprehensively evaluate the supply chain based on customer needs, business needs, current trends, expected disruptions and objectives. This evaluation will include a comprehensive health examination of each of the 20 elements of the supply chain and a quantitative review of performance indicators, including those related to inventory, service, cost and complexity.

To help conduct such assessments effectively, we use standardized questionnaires, process reviews and performance indicators that we have developed in the course of numerous projects with leading chemical suppliers. In addition, we rely on a comprehensive database of external benchmarks and best practices to enrich the assessment process. A professional supplier uses these tools to evaluate its supply chain, which has become more and more complex over the years. The company found three key elements in this transformation: portfolio management, IBP and digital tools. (see Table 5). ）But many other areas also require substantial action, including analysis, digital skills, and commodity flows, as shown by the differences between the "current performance" and "transition target" lines in Table 5.

With the continuous improvement of supply chain maturity and excellence, digital focus will naturally shift from repairing process or system problems to improving existing processes. For example, in a more mature supply chain, digital tools can immediately start to improve performance to a new level by introducing benefits such as real-time connectivity and social media like collaboration throughout the supply chain.

As the supply chain gets closer to excellence, chemical suppliers will no longer adopt measures to repair or improve existing processes, but introduce solutions to create new processes and services for customers. A popular example is the shift from demand forecasting to demand perception - using big data indicators and agents to predict future demand, rather than inferring based entirely on past demand.