Artificial intelligence helps optimize building materials supply chains
Abels & Kemmner and hpossner consulting, two service providers specializing in the building materials sector, have joined forces to form a task force SCM@baustoffe intended to help leading building materials manufacturers and traders optimize their supply chains.
The newly created task force SCM@baustoffe sees its main role in advising companies in the building materials sector on how to digitize the physical flow of goods and how to automate the management decisions that trigger this flow of goods. Where appropriate, the team also aims to deploy artificial intelligence to make processes faster and better or, in some cases, enable new processes that were previously impossible.
“Supply bottlenecks and a lack of delivery reliability have been topping the list of reasons for significant sales and revenue losses in the building materials industry, especially in recent years. In this seasonal market environment, it has not yet been possible to match the delivery performance levels of other sectors despite persistent overcapacity in production,” says Hans-Peter Oßner of hpossner consulting in summary of the issues.
“Lack of transparency along the supply chain obscures the view of inefficiencies and areas with significant untapped potential to increase the economic success of companies. This applies to the entire chain, from the supplier to the manufacturer and retailer to the construction site,” says Professor Dr. Götz-Andreas Kemmner of Abels & Kemmner, explaining one of the main reasons for the industry‘s weak supply chain performance.
The team of consultants sees the main tasks in establishing and optimizing end-to-end supply chain planning – from sales forecasting to scheduling – and also in optimizing all required data and parameters for planning and scheduling, often referred to as MRP (Material Requirement Planning) parameter optimization. Both are at the heart of automated management decisions and hence instrumental in creating better, more efficient supply chain processes.
The consultants use simulations and artificial intelligence to effect concrete and tangible results that quantify the economic benefits of digitization in the building materials industry. Such benefits include, for example:
significantly improved forecasts and delivery capability
reliable safety stock calculation, especially for sporadic and seasonal demand, based on distribution-free mathematical methods
decision-making mechanisms that trigger demand in good time, even before customers have placed their orders
Task force SCM@baustoffe aims to enable the building materials industry to improve delivery accuracy along the entire supply chain – regardless of what and how much is needed where and when. Customers benefit from lower logistics costs and inventory levels, and higher delivery readiness and reliability, all contributing to measurable sales growth. With such methods in place, the building materials industry, too, can achieve delivery readiness levels of 95% to 98%.
The team of advisors from hpossner consulting and Abels & Kemmner brings more than 30 years of management experience in the building materials industry, over 25 years of experience in supply chain optimization, and practical knowledge from more than 250 national and international projects to the table. Heading task force SCM@baustoffe are supply chain management experts Dr. Bernd Reineke and Professor Dr. Götz-Andreas Kemmner, as well as Hans-Peter Oßner, who in the course of his professional career has held management positions at Sievert AG and Cemex Deutschland AG, among others, and is a proven expert as a management consultant in the building materials industry.
