On an average, the US manufacturers spend half of their revenue in purchasing goods and services.
The global chemical production is influenced by the developments in China, as the country accounts for the majority of the world’s production capacity. The chemical market comprises of specialty chemicals, commodity chemicals, and agricultural chemicals. With the recent M&A taking place in the chemical space, prominent organizations are realigning their product portfolios to focus more on their core competencies and enhance their product positioning strategy in the market. Also, with the relentless competition in the inorganic fertilizers market, businesses are focusing on developing their core strengths to address business concerns. Although the latest innovations are forcing chemical companies to exhibit steady growth in the market, certain factors hampering the market’s growth include.
- Variations in the commodity prices: It is estimated that the US used to be one of the most expensive countries in the world to manufacture chemicals. Due to the fluctuations in commodity prices, manufacturers across different countries are concerned about the production of chemicals within their country and are relying on trade practices to meet their daily requirements.
- Increasing recalls of the products: Recalls and quality of the products are the major concern for any manufacturing industry. With a rise in the recall of the products, prominent chemical companies are facing pressures to ensure compliance with a variety of government-mandated requirements. Moreover, leading companies have to keep track of the production techniques, materials, and packaging to ensure better quality in their production lines.
To address these challenges and reach out to the audiences in a timely and efficient manner, organizations are facing the need for an effective supplier selection process. Supplier selection can be defined as profiling and shortlisting the right supplier from a pool of suppliers. The selection process can be based on factors such as money, quality, reliability, and service. A reliable supplier selection process helps businesses identify the potential suppliers that can match the business requirements.
The Business Challenge
- The Client: Inorganic fertilizers
- Area of Engagement: Supplier identification and profiling
A prominent inorganic fertilizers manufacturer with a considerable number of product offerings wanted to identify and profile potential suppliers and efficiently allocate their resources to meet the business requirements. The client wanted to solicit information from suppliers and set contract terms and negotiate with suppliers. With the help of the supplier selection study, the client wanted to seek ways to define and measure the best value for the organization and offer products to the customers that match their business requirements. Moreover, the primary objective of the engagement was to understand the supplier characteristics and create a supplier selection scorecard to prioritize the needs of the customers.
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The Journey
To identify the current suppliers in the inorganic fertilizers space, Infiniti’s supplier selection experts carried out extensive interviews and discussions with leading stakeholders in the industry. To profile the competitors, Infiniti’s supplier selection experts also compiled information from a wide array of secondary sources such as paid industry database, company presentations, and industry forums in the chemical industry.
The Solution and the Business Impact
The supplier selection solution offered by Infiniti helped the inorganic fertilizers manufacturer to profile the right supplier based on their characteristics. The engagement also sought ways for the client to improve the time-to-market for the products offered, drive customer demand, and build a strong brand reputation. Moreover, the engagement also focused on measuring supplier performance to further understand the supplier’s strength and weaknesses and enhance the supply chain visibility. The client was able to prioritize the suppliers and focus on high-risk suppliers, while monitoring second-tier suppliers. The engagement also sought ways to gain suppliers feedback and to identify performance gaps to discover how supplier understands their operation.
The Future
The future of inorganic fertilizers lies in innovations as the companies are investing highly on R&D to meet the unique demands of the customers. Moreover, the growth of the chemical space is expected to be steady, growing at a significant rate of 3 percent in the next 20 years with nearly half of the production contributed by Asia and the Middle East.
A must-read case study for strategy specialists and decision makers looking to develop an understanding of the chemical industry
