SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Figure 2- Transportation logistics in the Elemica system
Samuga – Elemica brings to life the automation of transaction
those of suppliers, between the transportation management systems of shippers and carriers, and between account accounts payable and accounts receivable systems.
Samuga believes that the key difference between Elemica and other providers in its field is‘ ecosystem extensibility’. In its core network, an order from any customer to any supplier looks exactly the same and the data model that supports these transactions is rationalised, where others apply point-to-point integrations. Thus a customer only needs to be onboarded to the network once.
“ What that helps us do is rationalise everything in between and create a unique domain language, so that when we expand this customer base and supplier base and carrier base across the world, the effort for us is limited to testing and enabling and ensuring end-to-end processes work seamlessly,” he says.
Multi-tier visibility
Via past acquisitions, Elemica extends into other areas like tyre and rubber, consumer products, and food and beverage. Thus, says Samuga,“ multi-tier visibility was ingrained into our DNA and we basically help mitigate supply chain risks and reduce costs by enhancing visibility across all these areas”.
In the case of Michelin in tyres, Elemica claims to have achieved cost reductions of 30 % in expedited freight and 15-20 % in inventory by reducing the need for buffer stock and safety stock.
“ Then if you break it down into automotive, tyre and rubber, and the chemical company hierarchy, we promise between $ 5 and $ 15 in savings per order processed, 40- 70 % order entry error reduction, 15- 30 % improvement in your payment cycles, about 50-70 % of truck wait time reduction and about 5-15 % lower inventory freight cost and expedited costs.”
Samuga also points to the constant process of M & A and divestment in the chemicals industry. When a client divests or acquires, the Elemica network works with its back-end systems, be they ERP, transportation management or quality management systems, and manages the transition.
“ We become that network glue where we completely decouple them from any change management that they need to do with their external trading partners. From our perspective, we siphon that off as a network that ' s specific to this new company, and that ' s just a new identifier.”
For large and small
Whilst Elemica cites its largest customers, others are much smaller, such as Sachem, which turns over about $ 500 million / year and SI Group, at $ 2.2 billion / year.“ The key point is the platform and solutions are designed not just for the industry ' s largest players, but thousands of SMEs, because chemical companies buy and sell from each other.
“ With the multi-channel strategy we employ, you come as you are. If you want to send PDF orders, that ' s fine. We ' ll accept orders by email, not a problem at all, that ' s part of BASF ' s long tail strategy anyway. You want to log into a portal and place orders? Fine. We have portals for you to log in and place orders.”
Scale does not equate to complexity in chemicals, Samuga adds. With, say, compliance requirements and document automation, the path is basically the same for every company. Elemica’ s ability to convert unstructured data and convert it into structured data“ empowers SMEs to run smarter and have a more connected, more resilient supply chain without the need for a large IT budget”.
The universal business document Elemica’ s platform creates the proverbial‘ single source of truth’. An order looks exactly the same regardless of the format or the size of the companies involved. Elemica
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