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Consumers in the modern world have the luxury of speedier deliveries and better visibility than many would have thought possible even 15 years ago. For chemical companies though, logistics has not entirely kept pace, and a wealth of complex factors can still wreak havoc. Supply chains need to be flexible enough to withstand the unexpected. In Q4 of 2018 WBR Insights and Alpega surveyed 100 VPs of Supply Chain from chemical companies across Europe to find out more about the challenges they face and the innovative solutions they bring to the table.

The global market for chemicals is expected to double by 2035, up from 2.6 trillion Euros in 2015.However, the path for European companies seeking to capitalise on this growth is not clearly defined.Leading up to the LogiChem 2017 conference we wanted to investigate those responsible for the chemical supply chain in Europe are facing up to these new challenges.Get your copy of ‘Excellence in Chemical Logistics’

SAP’s approach to enabling this digital transformation is to provide the digital-ready platform, the high-performance applications, and the connected business networks necessary to rapidly and securely execute new business models, extend value chains, and engage with customers, employees, and partners like never before. Take a look at 'Digital Transformation in the Chemicals Industry' to be inspired to shape a digital world to fuel profitable growth, safely deliver innovative chemicals, and build customer intimacy like never before.

Success is your reward … in case you concentrate on culture and behavior! Leon van der Loo - Industry Lead at Möbius Business Redesign discusses the following topics in this report. Why do many S&OP’s fail or are companies not satisfied with them? Why do most attempts to collaborate in logistics services fail? Why do many Operational Excellence implementations fail or cease to exist after a few years?

In the current period of rapid change, the chemical industry has recognized that it must embrace the proliferation and confluence of digital technologies to overcome the significant challenges it now faces. Extreme global competition, increasing regulation and market uncertainty, the need to perpetually consolidate and optimize the business portfolio to enable profitable growth, the accelerating compression of product lifecycles, and shifting demand patterns and channels to key markets are putting a drag on shareholder returns, asset utilization and efficient resource allocation while driving the need for outcome-oriented, perpetual portfolio innovation in order to grow

Chemical companies are looking to address well-understood business challenges.They start exploring entirely new business models, further optimizing operations using predictive models and machine learning, and going beyond their industry boundaries creating collaborative, innovation-driven ecosystems by bringing all stakeholders together on a single platform.

Determining the optimal stock levels for MRO spares should be a science, not an art. But for more organizations, it represents an impossible numbers game. Organisations without optimized inventory run the risk of overpaying and underperforming. By leveraging technology tools, automated processes and inventory management best practices to optimize MRO spares and consumables, asset-intensive organizations can consistently produce results like these: 15-25% reduction in funds invested in safety stock • 5-20% decrease in write-offs of surplus and obsolete stock • 10-25% fewer stock-outs, for improved availability and productivity • 10-25% drop in administrative costs for replenishing inventory • 33-66% less resource time spent managing inventory

The chemicals industry is at the tipping point between a new future and a downgrading to a general purpose utility function for others. Classical thinking about the industry is maxed-out, and by now most of the players are trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma, preventing them from embracing new ways. It’s time leaders in chemicals take their heads out of the sand, open their minds and reimagine their industry by first giving up their industry thinking. In this paper, we will explain the trends we are currently observing, their consequences and how these could impact chemical companies.