Nearshoring : Not that simple
Ed Roullard , senior vice president of marketing and operations , and Patrick Bower , senior director of supply chain , give Actylis ’ take on the chemical supply chain
Figure 1 – Supplychain constraints
Although Actylis was only launched as a company in September , we have been living supply chain through our legacy for dozens of years . Our large and complex supply chain manages about 15,000 international shipments / year , operates 4,000 containers and spends $ 30 million / year on transport . We also have 55 warehouses and employ 35 logistics staff and 50 sourcing specialists , with an average tenure of 12 years . As we faced the most recent challenges , we made a conscious decision to do more than just navigate through the supply chain disruption . Our focus was on ensuring that our customers suffered the least amount of disruption possible while at the same time using this moment in history to accelerate change within Actylis ; we saw the disruptive chaos as an opportunity . We became determined to come out of the disruption better , stronger and more efficient , with an increased customer focus . Ultimately , the strategy that emerged from COVID was simple : to provide our customers with choice . It has become the heart of our acquisition strategy . As we bring facilities onboard , we continue to mature this strategy of choice between manufacturing and sourcing , of delivery modalities and between direct shipments or warehoused product . Because we have such a vast sourcing network , if , for example , we suddenly found that one of our supplier ’ s plants could not operate due to COVID , we know with certainty that we would have another , already qualified , supplier in India , for example , to turn to . We also took the view that merely surviving during COVID was the cheap route . Instead , we wanted to thrive and exit in a better condition than we started . In the middle of COVID , as real examples , we optimised our distribution network , improved our technology , added extensive analytics and focused on internal process , scale and communication . Our on-time-infull rates are now 10 % higher than they were two years ago .
Current constraints
The global supply chain has always had a lot of constraints ( Figure 1 ) but only when the world is turned upside down do they really start to show themselves . We have sought to take
54 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981