Chemicals
The chemical industry includes companies involved in the production of chemicals with high economic impact. These include petrochemicals, agrochemicals, paints, pharmaceuticals, polymers and oleochemicals. Chemical processes are used, including chemical reactions to form new substances, separations based on properties such as solubility or ionic charge and distillations and transformations by heating and other methods.
Some of the unique manufacturing needs of the Chemical industry include, inconsistent quality of raw materials; once processed the products cannot be reduced back to their original state; product is normally manufactured in bulk, then packed according to requirements; conformance to control of hazardous materials and storage of the necessary backup certificates of approval; and in a number of industries every order represents a new product, depending on the formula used and the substitutions made.
Common characteristics of the chemical industry
Chemical manufacturers share many common characteristics:
- Process manufacturing.
- Batch.
- Continuous.
- Make-to-stock.
- Package-to-order.
- Make-to-order.
- Hazardous goods.
- By-products and co-products.
- Specialisation.
- Distribution requirements planning.
- Forecasting.
- Raw material and finished goods tracking.
- Quality monitoring.
- Diverse markets - OEM, industrial and retail.
- Capital intensive.
Chemical industry challenges
The challenges they potentially face are to:
- Comply with local and international environmental and safety regulations.
- Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and local accounting regulations.
- Reduce costs and eliminate waste in a volatile energy cost environment.
- Streamline business processes and IT systems.
- Improve IT system security.
- Manage the storage and retrieval of compliance documentation and certification.
- Manage the storage, handling and transportation of hazardous goods.
- Monitor and report on safety compliance.
- Manage raw material quality.
- Reduce environmental impact.
- Manage by-products.
- Rationalise pack sizes and product ranges.
- Manage distribution.
- Manage seasonal demand.
- Maximise material yields.
- Manage large inventories.
SYSPRO product modules can address these challenges
SYSPRO addresses these challenges with the following modules from its extensive enterprise resource planning suite. Suggested modules include:
- Forecasting Module.
- Requirements Planning Module.
- Lot Traceability Module.
- Finite Scheduling Module.
- Quality Data Collection Module.
- Engineering Change Control Module.
- Work in Progress Module.
- Factory Documentation.
- Bill of Materials Module.
- SYSPRO Reporting Services Module.
- SYSPRO Analytics Module.
- e.net Solutions.
- Document Flow Manager.
