The global supply chain is affected by the direct and chain reaction of coronavirus or covid-19 pandemic. Due to the shortage of chemical raw materials, the epidemic has caused operational turbulence and serious logistical chaos. Facing the challenge, adapting to the changeable market environment shows the company's ability of continuous growth. Fast growing chemical manufacturer needs determination, planning and willingness to adapt to change.

To help with their business continuity planning, chemical manufacturers need to continue to transform their operational processes, inventory management strategies and transportation management. As each country's response to the health and economic crisis varies, the chemical industry's supply chain challenges are inevitable. Crisis can change the way you manage inventory, raw material purchases, monitor specific chemical requirements, employee processes, freight rates, etc.

Many comprehensive software applications have been developed to provide specific solutions to alleviate the problems associated with supply chain disruption. Microsoft Dynamics 365 supply chain management is considered to be the best software for supply chain management. It is a complete distribution and logistics solution. The following are four main problems faced by chemical manufacturers in managing transportation and logistics:

To roads and railways:

The transportation and logistics of the chemical industry rely heavily on the air and water transportation of large countries and international borders. However, growing safety concerns and inflated costs have led chemical manufacturers to move raw materials and end products by road and rail. The change of transportation mode directly affects the landing cost of products. Failure to accurately track landing costs, end-to-end transportation tracking and scheduling are the main pain points of chemical companies.

On time delivery of raw materials:

There was an unexpected and sudden difference in the demand for different chemicals. Globally, the demand for chemical surface cleaners and disinfectants has grown exponentially (understandably), however, most of the challenges are related to the on-time delivery of materials. Unpredictable transportation lead times and inability to deliver these raw materials are a big pain point in providing accurate delivery dates.

Transportation planning and inventory management:

Only with proper inventory management can the supply chain run smoothly. Given the current era, chemical manufacturers need to align their needs and logistics arrangements with the availability of their respective inventory products. This requires top-down visibility and high-level decision-making to approve faster changes in material requirements. One of the main obstacles is inefficient transport planning to minimize delays.

Increased freight and changing regulations:

With the change of transportation mode and the interruption of global chemical supply and demand pattern, freight has soared several times. Chemical manufacturers have to deal with higher freight rates, as well as logistics and supply chain management issues.

Despite these pain points, chemical manufacturers can redesign their transportation and logistics operations to cope with this situation. Here are some measures chemical manufacturers can take to simplify their distribution needs:

Assess requirements based on geographic location and allocate warehouses to meet these requirements.

Label, store and classify chemical inventory according to order priority to make it easy to transport.

Use serialized and bulk containers with barcodes for optimal supply and effective tracking.

Assign a task force to manage transport and logistics changes to optimize the supply chain and provide a single point of contact / visibility option for all relevant stakeholders.