Supply chain professionals in the chemicals industry view the underutilization of supply chain technology as a barrier to improving overall supply chain performance in the industry, according to an Accenture study released today.

According to Business Wire, this study, designed to identify supply chain best practices in the global chemicals industry, was based on a study of more than 250 business units with over 1,000 contributors in the industry across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In addition, Accenture recruited executives from 10 leading chemicals companies to form a Steering committee charged with designing and overseeing the study.

"This has been a very positive process as we consolidated information throughout our organization in a consistent manner," said David J. Prilutski, Vice President, Supply Chain for Lyondell. "We now know more about our company and how it compares to best practices and our peers. This has been very helpful as we define the areas on which we need to focus."

Among the key findings: fewer than 10 percent of respondents believe that their supporting supply chain technology is performing at an "excellent" level across all 11 functional areas studied like commercial optimization, demand planning, inventory target setting and deployment. In addition, although more than 70 percent of respondents reported using integrated systems for the order management and commercial optimization categories, fewer than 30 percent of respondents felt their technology was fully utilized.

The study also found that supply chain training shows significant room for improvement.

For example, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents said they either do not receive formal supply chain training or let functional areas define their own training needs, ultimately incorporating cross supply chain issues to varying degrees.

Furthermore, collaboration with customers appears to be a challenge for chemicals companies, as more than two-thirds of respondents indicated they do not engage suppliers in joint planning processes.

"Results from the study demonstrate that chemical company supply chains, while unquestionably valuable to a company's performance, are far from achieving best-practice status," said Christopher Lange, a senior executive in Accenture's Chemicals industry group and the study's author. "The study findings, which we plan to make available to any company that participates in the study, should benefit chemical professionals at every level in identifying gaps in their supply chains and using this information to drive the necessary changes."