PICO Rwanda trends—including growing international competition, industry consolidation, and heightened customer expectations—continue to put pressure on chemical manufacturers to improve their efficiency and effectiveness, particularly in the end-to-end supply chain. As these trends strain industry revenues and margins, supply chain excellence can make a powerful difference in chemical companies’ performance.

Our Companyalready invested considerable resources to improve their supply chains, but many need to go further in their efforts to establish a well-oiled end-to-end process—including best-practice customer service.

Drawing on our extensive work with leading chemical companies, we have developed a concise framework to help other companies move forward. The framework consists of 20 elements in five categories: strategy, network, organization, processes, and digital enablement. A focus on any single element will not create excellence. Instead, companies must conduct a comprehensive assessment of the supply chain, determine which elements best serve their needs, and work within those elements to reach performance and customer service goals.

As the chemical industry globalizes, competition—particularly from Asia and the Middle East—is rising and the cost of raw materials is becoming more volatile, increasing the pressure on pricing. Simultaneously, customers are demanding better service from their chemical suppliers, a trend undoubtedly encouraged by service improvements that they have experienced when dealing with other industries.. And chemical companies are moving toward increased segmentation in the way they manage their products, whether these are commodity products or innovative specialty products.