Chemical supply chain planning: optimizing efficiency and profitability
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Balancing complex trade-offs in chemical supply chains
Serving a specialty and commodity market, chemicals supply chains are caught between the uncertainties of global demand and the push effects resulting from the various batch, campaign, and continuous or semicontinuous production flows. Assets must be used to their full potential, waste must be minimized, and margins assured. How can you balance all these challenging trade-offs? OMP is here to help chemical companies orchestrate demand and supply, maximizing asset utilization and setting out the right inventory strategies to boost profitability.
Demand pull challenge
Demand for chemicals is very diverse and includes a broad range of base and intermediate chemicals, as well as a wide variety of specialty products. Base and intermediate chemical production chains create a wide variety of high-value and low-value co-products potentially off-balance with market demand. Businesses have to optimize their use of dedicated and non-dedicated tanks and warehouses all over the world. This has operational implications for loading and unloading too.
Production capacities need to be carefully planned to minimize changeovers, taking into account fixed-wheel and flexible-wheel policies, throttling decisions, and co-product fractions, and the actual performance of catalyst installations.
Some businesses will have to optimize utilities consumption based on the variable price of steam and electricity. And decisions have to be made to prioritize certain demands, sell certain volumes on the spot market and reserve others for captive use.
The specialty products market has its own challenges. It relies on a mix of make-to-order and make-to-stock production strategies, is subject to stringent quality control processes and involves large networks of subcontractors and distribution channels. The need to carefully tune inventory levels adds to the complexity of it all.
Modeling the entire supply chain
OMP takes care of all this. We know exactly how your chemicals supply chain planning works and we can model it to the necessary level of detail, which includes your production and storage installations, along with their input and output constraints and product and time-dependent rates.
We implement variable bills-of-material to manage co-product fractions, throttling, and recycling opportunities. Batch production processes are modeled too, allowing blends to be managed. We also model the service levels and constraints of your various contracts and swap deals.
The results
Powerful forecasting techniques, value-driven solvers and scenario planning capabilities connect all ends to help you manage and coordinate your entire chemicals supply chain planning solution in unison. With this clear overview of supply and demand you can maximize asset utilization, keep inventory levels within reasonable limits, and reduce waste and costs.
Full end-to-end visibility aligns different departments, makes planning more effective and boosts overall profitability. Planners, managers and executives across your entire organization will be delighted.
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A tailored solution
Meet the experts
We know exactly how difficult it is to plan production, storage, demand and distribution of chemicals for maximum profitability. Meet our dedicated chemicals team to discover how OMP can transform your supply chain.
Challenges of the chemicals supply chain
The chemical supply chain is caught between global demand and push effects. High-value assets must be fully used and margins must be assured. Discover how OMP for Chemicals tackles these challenges.
Ask our experts
How does OMP for Chemicals address your challenges? Browse through our FAQ or submit your own question.
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Success stories
OMP improves BASF petrochemical business' supply chain planning performance
The petrochemicals division of chemical leader BASF is finalizing the global OMP’s Unison Planning™ rollout to all regions. This rollout is the tailpiece of a global program to deliver integrated planning performance to the remainder of the petrochemicals division’s production plants, as well as the affiliated businesses.
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Braskem chooses OMP as partner in their supply chain transformation journey
Global petrochemical company Braskem, the largest thermoplastic resin producer in the Americas, has selected Unison Planning™ as their advanced supply chain planning solution, which will be implemented at the Brazilian plants first.
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Strategic partnership set to boost Solvay’s supply chain performance
OMP and Solvay, a global leader in the chemical industry, have announced a strategic partnership to transform Solvay’s supply chain planning. Leveraging OMP’s advanced planning solutions, the collaboration aims to drive efficiency, innovation, and operational excellence for Solvay.
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What keeps chemical leaders up at night? - Jack Eggels’ insights
How can effective risk management position a business for success during volatile times? What criteria should be considered when selecting a solution provider? Jack Eggels, former executive at Shell Chemicals, addresses the key drivers for success in the chemicals industry.
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How Evonik boosts supply performance by evaluating scenarios
Evolutions in the oil, gas, and specialty chemicals markets have made planning the supply of Evonik’s Performance Intermediates business line more complicated than ever. As raw material quality and downstream demand became less predictable, it was clear that a more structured tactical planning process, driven by reliable demand and supply data, was needed.
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OMP solution supports Corbion’s gradual transition to SAP S/4HANA
Leading food and biochemicals company Corbion has taken into operation a multi-ERP interface with their OMP planning solution to support the gradual transition to SAP S/4HANA.
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Axalta ensures global collaboration with OMP
Axalta Coating Systems implemented OMP for all their demand and supply planning processes worldwide. Global design, core implementation and all rollouts in its EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific regions were achieved in less than one year.
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Siegwerck Druckfarben plans globally with OMP
Siegwerk Druckfarben, the supplier of printing inks for packaging and publications, implemented OMP in 8 factories and 3 continents for production planning & detailed scheduling.
Read the newsWhat our customers say
“It’s now possible for us to make complete scenarios in a very limited time. We can also make a scenario that is value-based and not volume-based, and this is a really big point in our business.”
David Kochanek, Specialist Process & Business Support at Evonik Performance Intermediates
“OMP is capable of generating a value-based plan, including the complexities of our chemical network.
We now discuss value instead of volume!”
Rainer Fretzen, Head of Performance Intermediates at Evonik
“OMP is the perfect solution to solve our complex requirements in a very dynamic, demand-driven business.”
Stefan Hauenschild, Sales & Operations Planning Responsible at Siegwerk Druckfarben
“The OMP consultants’ depth of knowledge in both the chemical industry’s business processes and the solution’s capabilities contributed greatly to the success of the OMP implementation at Eastman.”
Marc Dietrich, IT Planning Team Leader at Eastman
“The OMP solution allowed us to integrate our planning and scheduling needs with our corporate SAP platform. OMP has proven the flexibility to support scheduling needs ranging from batch to continuous processes.”
Jim Carey, Supply Chain Manager at Eastman
“The Axalta and OMP teams performed a fantastic job in an extremely short timeframe. With OMP, we jumped to the next generation of end-to-end planning and scheduling solutions. We managed to reach significant inventory reductions and shortened frozen horizons while improving service levels.”
Aaron Weis, Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Axalta