[ 108 ] | OVERVIEW
ROLE OF DIGITISATION IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Chemical companies have passed the proof-of-concept stage and are now running pilots or beginning to partially scale up digital efforts
O BHUDEEP HATHI
MANAGING DIRECTOR CHEMICALS LEAD, ACCENTURE TECHNOLOGY INDIA
n your marks. Reset. Go! This past year has brought many challenges, but it also marked an opportunity to adjust and rethink fundamentals as we go forward. Indeed, the World Economic Forum has called this era the Great Reset—and it is shedding light on how the chemical industry can use digital technology to move forward. The pandemic caused many of us to rebalance our daily lives—to shift our focus down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the basics of food, shelter and
health, and find ways to carry on in a dramatically changed environment. The industry demonstrated that plants can operate with fewer shifts and smaller teams—with some plants even achieving record production. Remote Marketing and sales became the norm. Greater cost efficiencies were achieved through reduced employee movements, having fewer contractors on-site, optimised supply chains and the increased use of collaboration tools. These changes were made out of necessity, but they helped define effective new ways of working. No one can imagine going back to the
