Things just got real
Syngenta has shared some of its journey to real-time visibility in its supply chain . We report from Logichem Europe
Syngenta , one of the world ’ s two largest suppliers of crop protection products , has been on a long journey to identify the best way of enhancing real-time visibility in its supply chain – and this has not ended yet . So said Peter Crowe , the company ’ s global head of logistics , at the Logichem Europe 2022 conference in Rotterdam in March . The company outsources the whole procurement function for freight and services . However , before 2016 , every country or regional subsidiary contracted second and third party logistics providers ( 2PLs , 3PLs ) and warehouses according to their known needs . Visibility through the global supply chain was consequently very limited . In 2016 , Syngenta implemented a digital logistics platform that is still in place . Logistics operations around sea- and airfreight and in some areas of overland transport were centralised in a single global function headed by Crowe . Data was standardised and a
Syngenta ’ s crop protection chemicals go into a wide variety of finished products
digital platform was brought in as a “ single source of truth ”. All of Syngenta ’ s ERP systems and 4PL are providers are connected through this , including one large 4PL provider for sea and air freight and multiple regional suppliers in the US and Europe . “ This brought us to the place where we had global visibility into what was happening in our supply chain ,” Crowe said . The transparency this platform brings is milestone-based , with information provided by the 4PLs , input into their own back office systems . As a result , Syngenta is able to see at any time where its shipments are , as well as having full cost visibility throughout its supply chain . “ The platform has really helped us manage successfully over the years ,” Crowe said . Its value was demonstrated in real life in 2021 when the Ever Given cargo ship became stuck in the Suez Canal . Within minutes , the supply chain function was able to determine which of its orders were on it .
The port city of Rotterdam hosted Logichem Europe
With the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic , questions began to be asked about whether a milestonebased set-up like this , with a certain lag in information , was good enough . Syngenta decided it needed to take another step forward , get closer to actual events and be able to inform its people with even greater speed and accuracy .
Beyond pull
“ Our current set-up is based on ‘ pull ’ technology , where , if I am a supply manager in a receiving country and I am waiting for an order that should be there on the 20th of the month , I can go onto the platform and see if it has been shipped or not – but if it has not , I am already late . I have the information but the system doesn ’ t do anything with the data ,” Crowe said . Syngenta wanted to remove the latency of having milestones being updated every 48 or 72 hours . There had already been internal questions about how trustworthy the milestones were . Sometimes , people were going into carriers ’ websites to check on what was actually happening , which rather negated the point of an internal tracking system .
46 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981