White Papers Type: Ebooks

As a process chemical company it is important to optimize and build advanced supply chain planning capabilities. You may have a current process in place, but are you experiencing the results that you need to prosper in this digital world? Is it time to maximize current supply chain planning investments and do more? To fully benefit from your strategic technology investments—and to take the next steps toward advanced supply chain capabilities—you must ensure your process chemical supply chain can embrace artificial intelligence (AI), optimize inventory, manage a complex supply chain and ensure a robust integrated business planning process.

These capabilities make it possible to implement an advanced supply chain process. With many moving parts in these complex supply chains, a scalable and unique process for each individual company is vital. Chemical process companies must possess strong capabilities in the following areas:

  • Supply Chain Data Management
  • Accurate Demand Forecasts
  • Optimal Multi-Plant Scheduling
  • Multi-echelon Inventory Optimization
  • Integrated Business Planning

This white paper explores complex chemical process supply chains and the many moving parts that must be considered to succeed. With reduced inventory, increased forecast accuracy, decreased time-to-insight and rich, untapped data sources companies will be able to create their specific formula. In this paper we dive into the five key ways advanced supply chain planning capabilities and optimization capabilities that process chemical companies need.

Supply chain transformation involves improving an organization’s abilities to make decisions about which products to keep in stock, where to keep them, when to replenish them, how to improve

service levels for customers, how to liquidate excess stock in the most profitable way and how to quickly respond to changes in customer demand. Supply chain planning transformation can enable real-time tracking and analysis of customer and product data, decision-making based on predictive and prescriptive models, and the use of new capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence, machine learning, social media and the Internet of things. It can also automate daily operational decisions to free up talent to work on higher value activities.

Supply chain planning is complex and a transformation initiative requires getting off to a good start with the support of senior management and a business case that outlines the benefits as well as the impact to the organization. This is a multi-dimensional journey that must ask the four following questions:

  1. What new process capabilities do you want your future supply chain planning platform to enable?
  2. What new data sources do you plan to utilize with your future supply chain planning platform?
  3. What new solution capabilities do you want to adopt to enable your transformed planning process?
  4. What new people skills will be needed to analyze data, operate new processes and use new solution capabilities?

Agile, data driven, speedy and highly automated supply chain planning operations are becoming increasingly critical in today’s fast-paced, global business world. This e-book provides practical steps and a best practice roadmap to guide you on your transformative journey.