Chemical Supply
Chain Management

Reacting to changes in the chemical supply chain

The chemical industry is built-up of organisations that produce a raft of industrial chemicals for a myriad of integrated or end-uses. Economically important, the industry converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different types of products. With a global supply chain that needs to keep up and traverses the globe, It’s not hard to see that there are complexities.

Supply chain sensitivities

Unlike other industries’ supply chains, many of the chemicals have many intermediary manufacturing steps and may be consumed in their base form or simply be used in the manufacture of other goods that you never see. Therefore, inventory planning, cost calculations, and quality control can become more complicated. Where other manufacturing occurs supply chains need to ensure the chemicals are there at the right time as their storage can also be complex.

Hazardous goods

Chemical supply chains are highly regulated by governments, the industry and other bodies. Unlike many industries, failures in the supply chain can directly affect human health, that of manufacturers and of customers. Organisations must adhere to the highest levels of internal scrutiny as early as the procurement stage, and manage the legal transportation and storage of the chemicals.

Complex shipping

By definition, chemicals are usually needing to be transported in large volumes. Raw chemicals can be solid or in liquid form and even after further manufacture, such as paints, they remain voluminous to transport into the supply chain and to the end-user. This makes transportation a significant process to manage and cost.

Fluctuations in supply

Chemical supply networks are vulnerable due to changes in the price of raw materials and in fact access to some materials. The price of oil or gas has a significant effect on their bottom line. Carrying large quantities of chemicals also makes it difficult to track price changes. Increased visibility is needed to optimise resource planning systems.

Solutions for the chemical industry

EDI

B2BE’s cloud based EDI network means the chemical industry can transmit all business documents electronically regardless of the format and required transmission protocol.Similarly, B2BE can also enrich and validate data as it parses through the EDI environment and issues around weights, measurements and areas that create integration issues in the chemical industry can also be handled ensuring the buyer’s data is easily managed by their supplier and vice-versa.

Document Distribution

When your organisation is able to distribute all your documents, particularly invoices, electronically no matter how the end customer needs them this gives your organisation greater levels of flexibility. Whatever the route B2BE can automate this for you so you don’t need to worry and you have the flexibility to change method quickly and easily.

Web Portal

B2BE provide Web Portal solutions to assist with overall visibility within the chemical supply chain. Organisations access the Web Portal using a secure login with user authentication. This gives you access to all B2BE products and services through a single solution. B2BE’s Web Portal solution will help chemical organisations with document search and workflows, enable them to handle and rout documents. Importantly, documents can also be linked through the supply chain and an archive kept so you always have access to your documents for business and legal reasons.

Helping your chemical supply chain to thrive

Enhanced visibility

B2BE's solutions provides chemical companies' customers and suppliers with greater levels of supply chain visibility, particularly the documents that make up the transactional elements of the supply chain. This helps to produce a collaborative environment between buyer and seller and also provides self fulfilment solutions.

EDI on-boarding

B2BE's on-boarding solutions can help chemical buyers on-board suppliers or suppliers on-board customers. B2BE handles the technical discussion, mapping, any specific issues that may cause integration issues and handle end to end testing so your organisation can focus on the chemical supply chain and not the electronic transactions.

Electronic workflows

The chemical industry can by the way they buy and sell create issues for trading partners within the process. B2BE's Document Management workflows can help the chemical industry integrate more easily while keeping the processes electronic.

Enhanced document management

B2BE's Document Management solutions means all documents in the chemical industry supply chain can be automated. Whether it's all the documents your organisation trades with it's suppliers or suppliers with their buyers, B2BE has a solution to digitise this process.