World's largest chemical company or best supply chain? Or both?

Hello everyone, I am Nikitha - A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in Operations and Marketing. I am back with my blog and this time I am going to take you through the cleverly constructed supply chain where the byproducts of one operation get converted into starting materials of another operation. 

BASF, a company headquartered in Germany with annual revenues of $65 billion, calls this "Verbund." In English this means to "combine" or to "cooperate." and the supply chain experts call it excellence in supply chain design.

BASF has six Verbund sites that create efficient value chains that extend from basic chemicals basic chemicals to high-value-added products such as coatings and crop protection agents. When by-products of one plant can be used as the starting materials for another, chemical processes consume less energy, produce higher product yields and conserve resources.

The Ludwigshafen site, encompassing ten square kilometers, is the largest chemical complex in the world. At this site, 110 production facilities and 200 production plants are interconnected. Byproducts and products flow through 2850 kilometers of pipes, 230 kilometers of rail, and over 100 kilometers of road. An astounding 39,000 employees work at this site. Talk about a company town! The company believes they save over one billion euros annually through this concept.

BASF saves on raw materials and energy, lowers emissions and cuts logistics costs because the synergistic production operations are near each other. In logistics, having plants near each other allows for 280,000 fewer truckloads per year.

So, how do they do it?

In energy, waste heat from production processes is captured to be used as energy in other production plants. In 2016 this allowed the company to save around 19.0 million megawatts per year. That reduces CO2 emissions by 3.8 million metric tons annually. The company's smart manufacturing initiative is working on predictive maintenance, the use of augmented reality, and even greater savings in electricity and steam generation.

Improved savings in electricity is particularly interesting. Ludwigshafen needs about 20 million metric tons of steam per year. This is generated by the production plants and the site's three power plants. The power plants produce the majority of electricity needed at the site. But they sometimes generate more power than is required. That electricity can be fed into the public grid.

BASF also has a smart supply chain program that has created some of the world's largest automatic guided vehicles (AGVs). These AGVs allow the company to supply their production plants faster and at lower cost. They project that it will soon take one hour from order to delivery of raw materials in huge tanks. Historically, this took twenty-four hours.

My ending note would be when you look at lists of companies with the best supply chains, you rarely see chemical companies mentioned. BASF shows there is a lot more going on in this sector than most supply chain executives understand. BASF has been creating chemistry for a sustainable future. Through science and innovation they created a clever supply chain through which they were able to meet the current and future needs of the society. 

World's Most Innovative warehouse , Attabotics - Inspired by the structure of Ant Colonies

Hello everyone, I am Nikitha - A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in Operations and Marketing. I am back with my blog and this time I am going to take you through the innovative logistics of the company Attabotics . 

Inspired by the framework of ant colonies, this automation company transforms the rows and aisles of a typical warehouse into a single, vertical storage structure that’s modular and scalable—and it uses robots to store and retrieve items for box packers. It estimates that it’s reduced warehouse space by 85% for companies in beauty and luxury goods, food, beverage, medical supplies, and more. So how do they do it?

Automation company Attabotics shrinks the typical sprawling warehouse into compact, vertical units, using robots to ferry items from shelves to box packers. Attabotics’s system is in six locations across North America, including food and beverage and medical supply facilities; in 2019, the company announced a partnership with Nordstrom to build a 340,000-square-foot warehouse, down from the company’s typical 1.5 million (or more) square feet. The intent, is to put fulfillment centers in smaller spaces, closer to customers, while easing the burden on workers and reducing commerce’s carbon footprint.

                                                Attabotics follows the principles of being precise, scalable, ergonomic and powerful. They focus on highest density storage by footprint and believe their solution has Industry leading throughput. They achieve this by true 3D storage and robot travel. They claim that they have the fastest robot cycle time with no charging downtime. Any bin is accessible by all workstations in the warehouse with Just-in-time waveless order picking. They have modular design with rapid construction and commissioning which can be expandable in any direction without impacting operations. The processes are Streamlined to eliminate unnecessary touchpoints with no single point of failure.

  

                                                  

IDEAL FOR ROBOTS

Attabotics’s container-­wielding bots navigate each storage unit from above. To retrieve items, they drop through empty columns, place their container on an empty shelf, and pick up another container on the way down. After ferrying the item to a box packer on the border of the unit, the bots return to the top.

SAVING SPACE

Traditional “pick and pack” warehouses rely on humans to retrieve items, requiring miles of space to accommodate low-slung shelving units. Attabotics’s robots allow clients to stack product closer together and higher up, reducing warehouse space by 85% on average.

CUES FROM NATURE

CEO of Attabotics says he was inspired to build the system while watching a nature documentary about leaf-cutter ants, which build their colonies vertically underground.

As companies’ supply chains and customer bases grow increasingly global, some of the best logistical solutions are being pioneered by nontraditional players. Attabotics robotic systems allows warehouses to move closer to the communities they serve.

EY, Procter & Gamble expand alliance in Supply Chain Drive

 

Welcome Back, Readers!💫 This is Saradha Preethi with yet another blog in Supply Chain. Hope you all are Fine and Great. 

Today's Blog is all about Alliance expansion of EY, P&G in Supply Chain Drive!

In today's world, businesses need end-to-end visibility to improve stability in the supply chain while balancing costs and agility to cope with the consequences and aftershocks of the COVID-19 crisis.

Based on the current EY-P&G Partnership, rooted in manufacturing innovation, expanded partnership broadens the reach of the relationship to other supply chain processes, including planning, strategy, customer support, transport, and distribution to help drive change and risk in the supply chain.

The partnership encompasses a wide suite of intellectual property ( IP) combined with a proven framework for transformation that includes:

• Supply chain structures that provide the basis for supply network operations and procedures, including organizational architecture and basic work processes and resources.
• Advanced technologies and automation that deliver creative services and strategies designed to automate and digitize current work processes to increase performance.
• The Run-to-Target Transformation Accelerator to provide a streamlined self-service approach by enabling the workforce to produce fast results and generate positive change.

A systemic approach empowers companies to operate holistically by breaking down organizational silos and reducing resources and inefficiencies. It aligns multiple business areas-supply chains, finance, sales, commercial-with common transformation objectives. The collaboration also allows greater interaction with consumers and vendors to create vital end-to-end visibility.

Glenn Steinberg, EY Global, and EY Supply chain Leader said that "With P&G's strong leadership in the area of supply chain excellence, it is important to extend the partnership with EY to tackle the full scope of the supply chain – particularly at a time when supply chains are under stress and businesses are trying to reframe their future. He also added that "The extended partnership will provide consumers with the innovative technologies, advice, and services they need today and in the future. The solutions provide a systematic framework for businesses globally to navigate and improve supply chain operations in today's unpredictable environment".

Their approach has been applied across their supply network – from manufacturers to consumers – to generate meaningful value in the form of cash, costs, and revenues. It can offer improved responsiveness, efficiency, service rates, inventory reductions, and cost savings. It, therefore, provides a powerful and standardized strategy for companies to maximize their end-to-end supply chain efficiency.😇

                                              Happy Learning with Sara :)