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SHOCK OF THE NEW DIGITISATION • NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE TRANSFORMING CHEMICAL SUPPLY CHAINS AROUND THE WORLD BUT THE US PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY FACES SOME PARTICULAR ISSUES E-COMMERCE HAS WROUGHT a revolution in customer behaviour in recent years – but largely so far in the consumer sector. Individuals have come to expect that they can order goods online, wherever they are in the world, and they will be delivered promptly (even on the same day in some cases) to a specified point. During the delivery, the customer can keep track of where the goods are and get a definitive estimated time of delivery (ETD) that, in all but a few cases, is met. Those same consumers are often also working in industry so it is no surprise that they are coming to expect the same degree of visibility for their industrial products. And while some producers in the chemicals
HCB MONTHLY | APRIL 2020
sector are responding to that call, there are challenges to be faced. Those challenges will be discussed during the Petrochemical Supply Chain and Logistics conference, due to take place in Houston on 10 and 11 June, coronavirus permitting. Ahead of the event, the organisers gauged the tenor of the industry with interviews with three specialists in the sector to get their views on the pace of implementation of the digital technologies necessary to create an ‘Amazon effect’ in the US petrochemical industry, the barriers that are holding up that implementation, and what a broad application of digitised systems will mean.
DIGITISATION IN PRACTICE As digitisation arrives in industry, it is beginning to become apparent that there are three areas where it can make a difference: - In purely internal terms, through improvements in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, accuracy of forecasting and planning, and automating the order-to-cash cycle - I n inter-company communication, improving accuracy and delivering improved customer service, and - I n the application of digitised hardware, such as ‘smart’ equipment in the process industries, drones in delivery applications and completely global mobile tracking. Each of these delivers similar outcomes: enhanced visibility throughout the supply chain, the availability of real-time information to all parties, a reduction in errors, and better accuracy. But, as is also becoming apparent, corporations adopting digitised systems need to keep the human factor in mind. Digitisation cannot replace the organisation or individuals within it, and must be designed in such a way
