(67e) Enterprise Inventory Management in Volatile Markets

Hydrocarbon and other commodity prices are increasingly volatile due to factors which include speculation, reduced inventory and a lack of spare capacity. Energy prices are likely to trend higher as we replace depleted crude oil and natural gas fields and reduce emissions. In this environment optimizing the inventory held by any enterprise across its supply chain becomes both more difficult and more important. This paper describes the use of state of the art supply chain planning and scheduling solutions to address this challenge in the oil refining and LNG industries. Case studies are used to demonstrate how leading energy companies reduce inventory, transportation and production costs while increasing reliability and agility. These results are achieved by improving decision making through better data collection, validation and visualisation, better models to simulate and optimize the supply chain and better collaboration and communication.