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The Future of Supply Chain Management for Chemical Companies

The Future
Individual consumers expect tailored products and services. Color, size, quantity, payment method, and delivery channel options abound. The chemical sector is also now following this suit of action. The global chemicals supply chain has grown steadily for three decades. Chemical businesses are improving their supply chain capabilities to handle complexity and meet client demands. This includes implementing advanced data-driven and cloud-based technologies that enable faster, more flexible, and tailored customer interactions.

Areas of innovation for chemical companies


Living Segmentation

Living segmentation can help chemical businesses better serve clients and satisfy their expectations. This entails adapting supply chain capabilities to each customer's needs.


Asset-light Network

An asset-light network involves developing an ecosystem of partners to add capabilities and value to your supply chain beyond standard co-manufacturing, co-packing, and third-party or last-mile logistics providers. In addition, it should include technology partners that help chemical businesses innovate and be adaptable.

Data and Applied Intelligence

Improving speed, agility, and efficiency in global supply chains demands comprehensive visibility and the correct information. Data provides visibility and insights. The key to providing excellent customer service is gathering the appropriate data and using it strategically to get important insight. The industry generates a ton of data, which is excellent news.

In response to last year's supply chain delays, corporations are building supply chains with geographically spread shipping/supplier choices. Real-time visibility and enhanced analytics can be used to track delays by providing revised ETAs and analyzing downstream implications. Data-driven insights can alert organizations of a delay almost immediately and help them acquire raw materials from another supplier to reduce the domino impact downstream. Chemical businesses must rethink their supply chains to implement living segmentation, asset-light networks, data, and AI.

Spotlight

TIMAC Agro Brasil

TIMAC Agro is a French multinational that manufactures and markets high technology fertilizers. The company belongs to the Roullier Group, which is present in all continents, with subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and commercialization in 102 nations.

OTHER ARTICLES
Chemical Management

Energy portfolio restructuring: Charting the future

Article | July 22, 2021

Consumer needs and preferences in the energy industry are evolving. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns are becoming more acute—inspiring action and shifting value towards low-carbon solutions. These trends accelerated in 2020 and for the first time, market capitalization of leading low-carbon solutions companies began to overtake those of oil and gas (O&G) majors. This is despite the majors laying out energy transition strategies, setting low carbon energy targets and generating higher revenues by an order of magnitude.1 In response to this radically changing landscape, energy companies are charting divergent courses for their futures. Some continue to bet on their ability to generate returns from the O&G value chain. They are focusing on growing margins and lowering carbon intensity. Others are supplementing their capabilities with low-carbon energy solutions or exiting hydrocarbons altogether. This blog focuses on the path forward for the energy majors in Europe who are betting big on diversification.

Read More
Chemical Management

Demographics are reshaping petrochemicals trade flows, investment patterns and demand

Article | June 15, 2021

TEN YEARS AGO, fellowblogger Paul Hodgesand Ifirst highlighted the leading rolethat changing demographics would play in reshaping petrochemicals supply and demand. We have been emphasising the importance of demographics ever since. Demographics have, of course, always been a critical shaper of economies throughout human history. But during the last 70 years, there have been such major changes in demographics that the study of demographics must be at the very heart of your company’s strategy. The Babyboomer generation in the West led to a surge in demand as the rapid increase in babies born in the 1950s and early 1960s joined the workforce from the 1970s onwards. This helps explain high levels of inflation during that decade because too much demand was chasing too little supply. Another driver of inflation was the Middle East embargos against oil exports to the West because of the West’s support for Israel. Then came the 1990s and first the integration of Eastern Europe into the global economy. This helped dampen inflationary pressures because of the plentiful supply of workers in the east willing to work for low wages in export-focused factories. This reduced the cost of finished goods in the West. Next came Deng Xiaoping’s critically important“southern tour”in the early 1990s and China’s gradual integration into the global economy. China increasingly leveraged its very youthful population to again make cheap goods to export to the West. Hundreds of millions of young people were willing to migrate from the countryside to China’s coastal cities to work in export-focused manufacturing plants. The world began to talk about the “China price” and how it was further depressing global inflation.

Read More
Chemical Management

Future-Proofing the Chemical Industry with Digitalization

Article | June 17, 2021

Over the next five to seven years, the chemical sector will place a greater emphasis on sustainability, and digitization will play a significant part in this. Reducing resource use, pollution, energy consumption, and waste are some of its main applications. Additionally, it will increase demand for a circular economy supported by IoT, AI, and other digital technologies. Some of the systems now in place or being used in the sector include autonomous solutions that enable lower energy usage, dispatching systems for effective logistics and strategies for sustainable power and fuel consumption. Chemical players making the switch to digital platforms have a chance to triumph if they move swiftly and update their operational models in accordance with a few common success characteristics. In fact, according to our study, making the correct decisions can increase total earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by 3 percent or more (EBITDA). The Next Step of Operational Excellence The same level of transformation is available with digital technology for optimal performance, together with success-enabling measures. The same level of corporate participation and realignment will also be necessary for the effective implementation of digital technology. Finance and telecoms were early leaders in adopting digital technology faster than the chemical sector, which has just recently started to move in more significant numbers toward digitalization. A circular economy in the sector is also being enabled by the use and evaluation of digital technology. The "Right to Fix" movement is being driven by governments and legislators in Europe and the US, and small and medium-sized businesses in the industry are expected to invest in technology that makes it easier to repair electronic items with the least amount of waste. On a side note, by enabling the re-use of resources and products throughout the supply chain, digitalization with lean manufacturing (LM) would enable businesses to improve operational excellence and create value, thereby supporting the circular economy goal. Conclusion Given its extensive safety and regulatory requirements, the chemical sector has evolved slowly. However, as the global economy changes, some skills will become obsolete and others essential. The interconnectedness of people, processes, and technology, as well as the requirement for real-time insight at the levels closest to the action, are among the basic principles of Industry 4.0. These values have existed for some time and are an extension of our teams' current operational excellence initiatives. Digital transformation is not a technology endpoint but rather the following stage in the process and business evolution as the chemicals industry advances continuously.

Read More
Chemical Management

Boom in petrochemicals demand guaranteed but we must grow sustainably

Article | June 3, 2021

ONE OF THE GREATEST achievements of the last 30 years has been the fall in the number of people living in extreme poverty.In 1999, 1.9bn of the world’s population were living on less than $1.90, the Word Bank’s definition of extreme poverty. Despite setbacks caused by the pandemic, this had fallen to 698m by October 2020. Income levels alone are not enough to escape the life-threatening agony of extreme poverty. There is no point in having money if the essential goods and services to spend your money on are not available. Critical to poverty alleviation has been sufficient supply of all the things that people in the rich world take for granted. The raw materials to make the vast majority of manufactured goods include petrochemicals and polymers. Nearly all the major manufacturing chains would not have been able to function without petrochemicals. Think of medical equipment, syringes, blood bags, hospital gowns, face masks, pill bottles and medicine blister packs. None of the above could have been produced without petrochemicals. As people emerged out of extreme poverty and as economies became wealthier, modern-day medical services became more widely available.

Read More
Chemical Management

Pandemic’s third wave seems unlikely to damage global petrochemicals demand

Article | July 22, 2021

Consumer needs and preferences in the energy industry are evolving. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns are becoming more acute—inspiring action and shifting value towards low-carbon solutions. These trends accelerated in 2020 and for the first time, market capitalization of leading low-carbon solutions companies began to overtake those of oil and gas (O&G) majors. This is despite the majors laying out energy transition strategies, setting low carbon energy targets and generating higher revenues by an order of magnitude.1 In response to this radically changing landscape, energy companies are charting divergent courses for their futures. Some continue to bet on their ability to generate returns from the O&G value chain. They are focusing on growing margins and lowering carbon intensity. Others are supplementing their capabilities with low-carbon energy solutions or exiting hydrocarbons altogether. This blog focuses on the path forward for the energy majors in Europe who are betting big on diversification.

Read More
Chemical Management

Global polyethylene demand boom likely, increasing the sustainability challenge

Article | June 15, 2021

TEN YEARS AGO, fellowblogger Paul Hodgesand Ifirst highlighted the leading rolethat changing demographics would play in reshaping petrochemicals supply and demand. We have been emphasising the importance of demographics ever since. Demographics have, of course, always been a critical shaper of economies throughout human history. But during the last 70 years, there have been such major changes in demographics that the study of demographics must be at the very heart of your company’s strategy. The Babyboomer generation in the West led to a surge in demand as the rapid increase in babies born in the 1950s and early 1960s joined the workforce from the 1970s onwards. This helps explain high levels of inflation during that decade because too much demand was chasing too little supply. Another driver of inflation was the Middle East embargos against oil exports to the West because of the West’s support for Israel. Then came the 1990s and first the integration of Eastern Europe into the global economy. This helped dampen inflationary pressures because of the plentiful supply of workers in the east willing to work for low wages in export-focused factories. This reduced the cost of finished goods in the West. Next came Deng Xiaoping’s critically important“southern tour”in the early 1990s and China’s gradual integration into the global economy. China increasingly leveraged its very youthful population to again make cheap goods to export to the West. Hundreds of millions of young people were willing to migrate from the countryside to China’s coastal cities to work in export-focused manufacturing plants. The world began to talk about the “China price” and how it was further depressing global inflation.

Read More
Chemical Management

Energy portfolio restructuring: Charting the future

Article | June 17, 2021

Over the next five to seven years, the chemical sector will place a greater emphasis on sustainability, and digitization will play a significant part in this. Reducing resource use, pollution, energy consumption, and waste are some of its main applications. Additionally, it will increase demand for a circular economy supported by IoT, AI, and other digital technologies. Some of the systems now in place or being used in the sector include autonomous solutions that enable lower energy usage, dispatching systems for effective logistics and strategies for sustainable power and fuel consumption. Chemical players making the switch to digital platforms have a chance to triumph if they move swiftly and update their operational models in accordance with a few common success characteristics. In fact, according to our study, making the correct decisions can increase total earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by 3 percent or more (EBITDA). The Next Step of Operational Excellence The same level of transformation is available with digital technology for optimal performance, together with success-enabling measures. The same level of corporate participation and realignment will also be necessary for the effective implementation of digital technology. Finance and telecoms were early leaders in adopting digital technology faster than the chemical sector, which has just recently started to move in more significant numbers toward digitalization. A circular economy in the sector is also being enabled by the use and evaluation of digital technology. The "Right to Fix" movement is being driven by governments and legislators in Europe and the US, and small and medium-sized businesses in the industry are expected to invest in technology that makes it easier to repair electronic items with the least amount of waste. On a side note, by enabling the re-use of resources and products throughout the supply chain, digitalization with lean manufacturing (LM) would enable businesses to improve operational excellence and create value, thereby supporting the circular economy goal. Conclusion Given its extensive safety and regulatory requirements, the chemical sector has evolved slowly. However, as the global economy changes, some skills will become obsolete and others essential. The interconnectedness of people, processes, and technology, as well as the requirement for real-time insight at the levels closest to the action, are among the basic principles of Industry 4.0. These values have existed for some time and are an extension of our teams' current operational excellence initiatives. Digital transformation is not a technology endpoint but rather the following stage in the process and business evolution as the chemicals industry advances continuously.

Read More
Chemical Management

Boom in petrochemicals demand guaranteed but we must grow sustainably

Article | June 3, 2021

ONE OF THE GREATEST achievements of the last 30 years has been the fall in the number of people living in extreme poverty.In 1999, 1.9bn of the world’s population were living on less than $1.90, the Word Bank’s definition of extreme poverty. Despite setbacks caused by the pandemic, this had fallen to 698m by October 2020. Income levels alone are not enough to escape the life-threatening agony of extreme poverty. There is no point in having money if the essential goods and services to spend your money on are not available. Critical to poverty alleviation has been sufficient supply of all the things that people in the rich world take for granted. The raw materials to make the vast majority of manufactured goods include petrochemicals and polymers. Nearly all the major manufacturing chains would not have been able to function without petrochemicals. Think of medical equipment, syringes, blood bags, hospital gowns, face masks, pill bottles and medicine blister packs. None of the above could have been produced without petrochemicals. As people emerged out of extreme poverty and as economies became wealthier, modern-day medical services became more widely available.

Read More
MORE ARTICLES

Spotlight

TIMAC Agro Brasil

TIMAC Agro is a French multinational that manufactures and markets high technology fertilizers. The company belongs to the Roullier Group, which is present in all continents, with subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and commercialization in 102 nations.

Related News

Chemical Management

Sapio Sciences Unifies Small- and Large-Molecule Discovery on a Single Platform

Business Wire | October 10, 2023

Sapio Sciences, the science-aware™ lab informatics platform, today announced the launch of the Sapio Chemistry solution, which unifies small-molecule and large-molecule discovery workflows on a single platform. Built on the same no-code platform as Sapio’s existing large-molecule discovery electronic lab notebook solution, Sapio Chemistry enables scientists to draw insights across all their organization’s discovery experiments. See Sapio’s new Chemistry solution for yourself in this exclusive webinar on October 11, 2023 - register here. “Many organizations are still running decades-old electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) and other software for capturing chemical synthesis experiments and registering small molecules,” said Kevin Cramer, president and CEO of Sapio Sciences. “Large-molecule and small-molecule discovery have traditionally been managed on disparate systems, creating artificial islands that impede scientific collaboration and decision-making. Sapio is excited to give biopharma organizations the opportunity to consolidate all their chemistry experiments on a modern, unified lab platform.” Sapio Chemistry is designed to facilitate collaboration among chemistry teams and their colleagues in analytical core facilities and screening labs, including contract research organizations. Advanced, chemically intelligent search built into Sapio Chemistry makes up-to-date project data easily accessible to the entire team. Out-of-the-box, configurable templates simplify the capture and sharing of chemistry experiments, including the reaction, reagents, solvents, and products through to registering synthesized compounds, batches, and lots and requesting assays. Sapio Chemistry also includes advanced capabilities for sample and inventory management, leveraging the strong sample-handling features built into the Sapio platform. Sapio Chemistry includes the latest science-aware™ functionality from Sapio, offering the first-ever lab triple-play solution of ELN, laboratory information management system (LIMS), and Jarvis scientific data cloud all in one. Science-aware means the system unifies data and works the way scientists do with built-in tools for managing, visualizing, and analyzing data to make life in the lab simple. About Sapio Sciences Sapio Sciences' mission is to improve life in the lab — because science is complex, Sapio makes technology simple. Sapio is a global business offering an all-in-one science-aware™ lab informatics platform combining cloud-based LIMS, ELN, and Jarvis data solutions. Sapio serves some of the largest global and niche brands, including biopharma, CROs and clinical diagnostic labs across NGS genomic sequencing, bioanalysis, bioprocessing, stability, clinical, histopathology, drug research, and in vivo studies.

Read More

Chemical Management

Syzygy Plasmonics Signs Strategic Investment Agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

PR Newswire | October 12, 2023

Syzygy Plasmonics announced today that it has reached a strategic investment agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), executed through Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA). The agreement formalizes ties between Syzygy and MHIA, giving the global multinational engineering and manufacturing technology company greater insight into Syzygy's strategic priorities and an opportunity to support Syzygy's business execution plans. "MHIA has been making moves to establish themselves as one of the leaders in the energy transition," said Syzygy Chief Executive Officer Trevor Best. "Formalizing our relationship with them shows their commitment to helping scale cutting edge technology and opens up new avenues for Syzygy and MHIA to work together as we commercialize our industrial decarbonization platform." Syzygy Plasmonics Syzygy Plasmonics is a deep-decarbonization company. It builds reactors that use light instead of heat to electrify chemical manufacturing and power a cleaner, safer world. Utilizing technology licensed from Rice University and advanced engineering, Syzygy is commercializing a universal photocatalytic reactor platform. When powered with renewable electricity, this tunable technology is designed to reduce both cost and emissions from many different chemical reactions. Starting with solutions designed to consume greenhouse gases and produce low- and zero-emissions hydrogen, the company's mission is to create a world where chemicals, fuels, and fertilizer are low cost, carbon neutral, and accessible to everyone. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group is committed to building a business that contributes to realizing a decarbonized society while investing in and collaborating with various partners with innovative technologies. This investment will help Syzygy Plasmonics to accelerate commercialization and continue its development of innovative alternative technologies, particularly those that contribute to the hydrogen ecosystem and CO2 ecosystem. Going forward, MHI will continue to enhance and diversify its solutions portfolio, providing its customers with alternative decarbonization technologies to reach their net zero goals.

Read More

Chemical Management

LBB Specialties Announces Principal Partnership with Viscofan

PR Newswire | October 25, 2023

LBB Specialties (LBBS), a leader in specialty chemicals and ingredients distribution in North America, announces a new partnership with Viscofan DE, a global leader in collagen manufacturing. LBB Specialties will be Viscofan's preferred partner in the United States for their portfolio of premium collagen hydrolysates, including COLLinstant® and COLLinstant LMW®. "Viscofan has over 90 years of experience in the collagen market. We are excited to bring this expertise to our customer base, as these products meet global consumer demand for highly bioavailable ingredients with a major advantage over traditional collagen formulas," said Mike DeGennaro, Senior Vice President of LBB Specialties Food & Nutrition. Viscofan DE is the center of excellence for collagen products within the Viscofan group. Viscofan applies proprietary technologies and standardized extraction methods to process collagen from bovine skin for the development and industrial-scale production of novel collagen ingredients and biometrics. "LBB Specialties' technical expertise and dedicated commercial team is uniquely positioned to expand our innovative offerings in the US nutraceutical market," said James Murray, Business Manager at Viscofan. "Their existing portfolio of high-quality ingredients for health and wellness applications is the perfect complement to our COLLinstant® product line of collagen peptide alternatives." About LBB Specialties LBB Specialties is a leader in North American specialty chemicals and ingredients. It is a diversified supplier serving end-markets including care, food & nutrition, industrial specialties, and life sciences. LBB Specialties generates approximately $500 million in revenue annually and employs more than 110 commercial team members.

Read More

Chemical Management

Sapio Sciences Unifies Small- and Large-Molecule Discovery on a Single Platform

Business Wire | October 10, 2023

Sapio Sciences, the science-aware™ lab informatics platform, today announced the launch of the Sapio Chemistry solution, which unifies small-molecule and large-molecule discovery workflows on a single platform. Built on the same no-code platform as Sapio’s existing large-molecule discovery electronic lab notebook solution, Sapio Chemistry enables scientists to draw insights across all their organization’s discovery experiments. See Sapio’s new Chemistry solution for yourself in this exclusive webinar on October 11, 2023 - register here. “Many organizations are still running decades-old electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) and other software for capturing chemical synthesis experiments and registering small molecules,” said Kevin Cramer, president and CEO of Sapio Sciences. “Large-molecule and small-molecule discovery have traditionally been managed on disparate systems, creating artificial islands that impede scientific collaboration and decision-making. Sapio is excited to give biopharma organizations the opportunity to consolidate all their chemistry experiments on a modern, unified lab platform.” Sapio Chemistry is designed to facilitate collaboration among chemistry teams and their colleagues in analytical core facilities and screening labs, including contract research organizations. Advanced, chemically intelligent search built into Sapio Chemistry makes up-to-date project data easily accessible to the entire team. Out-of-the-box, configurable templates simplify the capture and sharing of chemistry experiments, including the reaction, reagents, solvents, and products through to registering synthesized compounds, batches, and lots and requesting assays. Sapio Chemistry also includes advanced capabilities for sample and inventory management, leveraging the strong sample-handling features built into the Sapio platform. Sapio Chemistry includes the latest science-aware™ functionality from Sapio, offering the first-ever lab triple-play solution of ELN, laboratory information management system (LIMS), and Jarvis scientific data cloud all in one. Science-aware means the system unifies data and works the way scientists do with built-in tools for managing, visualizing, and analyzing data to make life in the lab simple. About Sapio Sciences Sapio Sciences' mission is to improve life in the lab — because science is complex, Sapio makes technology simple. Sapio is a global business offering an all-in-one science-aware™ lab informatics platform combining cloud-based LIMS, ELN, and Jarvis data solutions. Sapio serves some of the largest global and niche brands, including biopharma, CROs and clinical diagnostic labs across NGS genomic sequencing, bioanalysis, bioprocessing, stability, clinical, histopathology, drug research, and in vivo studies.

Read More

Chemical Management

Syzygy Plasmonics Signs Strategic Investment Agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

PR Newswire | October 12, 2023

Syzygy Plasmonics announced today that it has reached a strategic investment agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), executed through Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA). The agreement formalizes ties between Syzygy and MHIA, giving the global multinational engineering and manufacturing technology company greater insight into Syzygy's strategic priorities and an opportunity to support Syzygy's business execution plans. "MHIA has been making moves to establish themselves as one of the leaders in the energy transition," said Syzygy Chief Executive Officer Trevor Best. "Formalizing our relationship with them shows their commitment to helping scale cutting edge technology and opens up new avenues for Syzygy and MHIA to work together as we commercialize our industrial decarbonization platform." Syzygy Plasmonics Syzygy Plasmonics is a deep-decarbonization company. It builds reactors that use light instead of heat to electrify chemical manufacturing and power a cleaner, safer world. Utilizing technology licensed from Rice University and advanced engineering, Syzygy is commercializing a universal photocatalytic reactor platform. When powered with renewable electricity, this tunable technology is designed to reduce both cost and emissions from many different chemical reactions. Starting with solutions designed to consume greenhouse gases and produce low- and zero-emissions hydrogen, the company's mission is to create a world where chemicals, fuels, and fertilizer are low cost, carbon neutral, and accessible to everyone. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group is committed to building a business that contributes to realizing a decarbonized society while investing in and collaborating with various partners with innovative technologies. This investment will help Syzygy Plasmonics to accelerate commercialization and continue its development of innovative alternative technologies, particularly those that contribute to the hydrogen ecosystem and CO2 ecosystem. Going forward, MHI will continue to enhance and diversify its solutions portfolio, providing its customers with alternative decarbonization technologies to reach their net zero goals.

Read More

Chemical Management

LBB Specialties Announces Principal Partnership with Viscofan

PR Newswire | October 25, 2023

LBB Specialties (LBBS), a leader in specialty chemicals and ingredients distribution in North America, announces a new partnership with Viscofan DE, a global leader in collagen manufacturing. LBB Specialties will be Viscofan's preferred partner in the United States for their portfolio of premium collagen hydrolysates, including COLLinstant® and COLLinstant LMW®. "Viscofan has over 90 years of experience in the collagen market. We are excited to bring this expertise to our customer base, as these products meet global consumer demand for highly bioavailable ingredients with a major advantage over traditional collagen formulas," said Mike DeGennaro, Senior Vice President of LBB Specialties Food & Nutrition. Viscofan DE is the center of excellence for collagen products within the Viscofan group. Viscofan applies proprietary technologies and standardized extraction methods to process collagen from bovine skin for the development and industrial-scale production of novel collagen ingredients and biometrics. "LBB Specialties' technical expertise and dedicated commercial team is uniquely positioned to expand our innovative offerings in the US nutraceutical market," said James Murray, Business Manager at Viscofan. "Their existing portfolio of high-quality ingredients for health and wellness applications is the perfect complement to our COLLinstant® product line of collagen peptide alternatives." About LBB Specialties LBB Specialties is a leader in North American specialty chemicals and ingredients. It is a diversified supplier serving end-markets including care, food & nutrition, industrial specialties, and life sciences. LBB Specialties generates approximately $500 million in revenue annually and employs more than 110 commercial team members.

Read More

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