Over the years, many industries, including the oil and gas industry, have turned to technology to improve and optimise systems within the downstream supply chain. The advances in software technology, specifically within this industry, has focused on using data and analytics to fuel change, enhance reliability, optimise processes and facilitate better organisation within the supply chain. The results of this type of optimisation include cost reductions, increased profitability and enhanced customer satisfaction. One such solution that answers to this is the ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) software.
Who is ORTEC?
ORTEC is the world’s leading supplier of mathematical optimisation software and advanced analytics. The business has around 1,000 employees and offices in 13 countries around the globe. ORTEC focuses on assisting energy companies in gaining operational insights to optimise their supply chain.
It is no secret that volatile demand and prices, dwindling reserves, rising costs and stringent regulations are impacting this sector. ORTEC software solutions aim to address these issues and provide insight and information to companies helping them increase profitability, visibility and ROI of supply chain processes. This is done by embracing technology and innovations, such as inventory routing software, that leverage data and allow you to provide cutting-edge services to stay competitive in the market.
What is Inventory Routing?
Inventory routing allows you, as the supplier, to deliver products to several customers while simultaneously optimising inventory management, vehicle routing, and delivery scheduling. ORTEC’s Inventory Routing (OIR) software allows you to effectively plan the delivery of products to different customers in a specific area. This solution is relevant for companies who manage their customer’s inventory, as is the case within a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) environment. In this environment, you as the supplier, make the replenishment decisions for products based on specific inventory and supply chain policies.
This innovative inventory routing software solution plays an important role in scheduling and planning processes. This software automates processes relating to when to service a customer, how much product needs to be delivered and assists in developing vehicle routes that service different customers in the same area. By using this software, you can save on distribution and production costs by coordinating shipments made to different accounts. Customers also benefit from increased fill rates, fewer stock-out situations, and lower inventory levels.
This software solution enables you to effectively manage, organise and plan distribution, transport and delivery of product to your customers with ease and more visibility.
The challenges that inventory routing software answers to
Inventory routing and planning comes with many challenges relating to:
Limited insights and visibility
Without insight and visibility into supply chain processes like stock replenishment, historic routes and deliveries, you are unable to get a full view of your supply chain performance. This means that you cannot identify potential problems and address them proactively. This puts you and your business on the back foot by having to react to things as they happen, which is often very costly.
Updating existing toolsets to better analyse costs
Without updated software that provides real-time tracking and analytics, you are unable to identify cost-saving opportunities and enhance your service delivery levels.
Reducing high costs and inefficiency in supply chain network design
Without access to analytics and data relating to truck utilisation, resource utilisation, fuel per km, on-time deliveries etc. you cannot analyse performance over time. Without this insight, you will not be able to identify high-cost areas and rectify processes needed to reduce costs within the supply chain.
Upgrading order planning and route scheduling system
With so many moving parts that need to be managed effectively not having a software solution that combines planning and routing processes and scheduling could end up costing the business in the long run.
ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) software solutions were created to address these challenges and needs by combining forecasting and planning, optimisation with real-time execution capabilities in one useful tool.
Key benefits and solutions that reduce planning and routing challenges
The ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) solution is a powerful tool that supports demand forecasting and route planning. This is essential in the case of transport and distribution within the oil and gas industry where product costs and delivery costs are high. Inventory and transportation costs can easily represent 80% of a company’s operational expenditures which is why it is so essential to implement a solution to effectively manage these processes.
The ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) software solution reduces expenditure and costs associated with the transport and distribution of product through:
- Centralised deployment which brings cost savings as only one application is maintained, with a single interface between ERP/TMS applications, in-vehicle devices and onsite equipment.
- Enhanced forecasting which brings forth improvements in average drop size, elimination of out-of-stock or run-out situations, reduction in oversized deliveries/returns, reduction in long term distribution costs.
- Improved customer service through enhanced communication and service delivery.
- Providing quick simulation of alternate planning scenarios and delivery strategies to determine the best product mix.
- Reduced transport costs as a result of better-planned delivery moments and quantities, reduced distances, driving time and vehicle utilisation.
- Reporting and analytics which are based on standard Microsoft SQL server reporting services aimed at providing real-time data and insights to support proactive decision making.
- Transparent route planning and vehicle costs which are identified through the analytics and reporting capabilities.
- Reduction in time required to plan and dispatch product orders because of enhanced optimisation and efficiency
Why choose this solution for your business?
The ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) software is a single environment solution that combines forecasting, planning, optimisation with real-time execution and dispatch along with analytic and reporting functionality. This solution also enhances business processes through:
Software integration – this software solution combines different work processes in one environment, allowing various departments to use one effective tool.
Scalability – add-on solutions can be scaled to meet your business needs based on work volumes. This allows for process security in your daily operations and the flexibility to respond to short term spikes in workloads if necessary.
Profitability – typical savings in the oil and gas industry are about 30% reduction in cost per litre.
Conclusion
Inventory routing is vital to the successful running of your downstream supply chain, which is why implementing the right inventory routing software is so important. With the right software in place, like the ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) solution, you will be able to manage, organise and plan distribution, transport and delivery of product to your customers with ease. The result of this is cost reductions, increased profitability and enhanced customer satisfaction. Adapt IT Energy is a proud partner of ORTEC across South Africa and Africa. We can implement this advanced planning solution from beginning to end, for both smaller and larger businesses within the oil and gas industry. Let Adapt IT Energy help improve your transport and distribution processes with the ORTEC Inventory Routing (OIR) software.