Worldwide sourcing planning at Solutia's glass interlayer products division

Abstract

This article describes the realisation of an optimisation project by a global chemical manufacturer with the objective of developing and implementing a supply chain coordination tool. After a presentation of the current supply chain and the challenges faced by Solutia prior to the optimisation project, we provide an overview of the mathematical model depicting the company's worldwide production network. We then provide an insight into the lessons learned by both the optimisation team and supply chain managers. In addition to the financial benefits, the project contributed to the structuring of scattered knowledge throughout a complex supply chain. We also address the shortcomings of ERP systems when it comes to providing reliable planning data and, in this context, draw parallels between optimisation and software development projects.

Keywords:

• capacity planning
• enterprise resource planning
• global manufacturing
• human–computer interaction
• information systems
• linear programming
• MRP2
• operations planning
• supply chain management