The importance of ERP within the chemical industry
The chemical industry plays an essential role in supplying all kinds of raw materials for use in consumer products, medicines and other vertical supply chains.
Managing this task is no mean feat. Chemical products may be subject to stringent regulations and compliance demands, might be hazardous or otherwise restricted in their movement and use, and often involve high-value ingredients with significant cost implications.
ERP systems such as SAP Business One allow chemical companies to optimise processes ranging from back-office administration through to the chemical production line itself.
Visibility and efficiency are maximised, cost and demand on resources are minimised, and processes are optimised not only on a case-by-case basis, but across the entire organisation at once.
Optimise traceability with ERP for chemical companies
Traceability is a unique challenge for the chemical industry, with implications for supply chains across many other sectors including food manufacture and pharmaceuticals.
ERP systems enable comprehensive batch control not only for finished products sent out to customers, but end-to-end from the raw materials brought in, to the date, time and identity of delivered items.
Full visibility of batch control is essential for multiple reasons:
- Compliance with industry regulations
- Enhanced safety for downward supply chain and end-users
- Mitigation of future legal risk
By using enterprise ERP systems such as SAP Business One you can integrate batch control and traceability alongside other essential processes in a single unified platform.
This not only saves on costs and avoids deploying additional resources, but it pulls all the data together into one location where it can be analysed in-depth to optimise your business processes and maximise your profits.
Choose an ERP solution tailored to the chemical sector
Not all ERP solutions are equal and deploying a generic IT platform might not meet all of the challenges of chemical manufacture, leading to the costly deployment of avoidable additional resources.
APH can provide a SAP B1 deployment that is tailored to the specific needs of the chemical sector.
Just some examples of unique chemical industry tasks that can be handled by SAP B1:
- Attribute safety, quality and costing
- By-product and co-product planning
- Formula matching and optimisation
This is in addition to the flexibility you gain from being able to respond rapidly to changing customer demands, based on deep insight into every aspect of your business.
Overcome rigid output and production schedules
Enterprise Resource Planning is a two-way process. You not only gain comprehensive visibility of your business administration and production lines, but you can make changes when necessary with organisation-wide effects.
As a result of this, when you are faced with an unanticipated fall in demand for a particular product, you can rapidly pivot resources to a more profitable line, safeguarding revenues while also supporting more sustainable supply chains in an ever-evolving industry.
Contact APH today to book a free consultation and find out more about how SAP Business One ERP systems enable chemical producers to optimise processes, maximise profits and serve changing customer demands more effectively.
