Supply Chain Tracking & Tracing for Gas Manufacturer

About the Customer

Engineering Industries eXcellence is in the midst of an exciting digital transformation project for a European manufacturer of medical and industrial gases. Our customer is an industry leader, providing services to millions of industrial customers and medical providers globally each year. The core of the gas leader’s business philosophy revolves around sustainability and innovation in the energy and healthcare sectors. Recognizing the pivotal role that enabling technologies play in realizing these critical objectives, the customer has strategically partnered with Engineering Industries eXcellence to implement cutting-edge digital solutions aimed at elevating the effectiveness of their product tracking and tracing system.

• Oil, Gas & Petroleum Industry
• Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences Industry
• Medical gas manufacturing
• Industrial gas manufacturing
• Gas cylinder recycling

The Customer’s Need

It is a commonplace practice for industrial gas suppliers and service providers to reuse the cylinders that store pressurized gases by collecting them from the customer sites and refilling them after various quality checks are passed. Although it poses a unique supply chain management challenge, this practice helps reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing, aligning with our customer’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To effectively manage this loop in their supply chain and production, the gas manufacturer used a custom-built tracking and tracing system. However, to achieve maximum process efficiency, it was crucial to have standardized interfaces in place to seamlessly scale up the system, enhance the data quality and keep operational expenses as low as possible. To unleash the full potential of their new tracking and tracing solution, the customer needed the support of an experienced digital transformation partner. With the help of Engineering Industries eXcellence, our customer sought to:

• Enable real-time visibility of gas cylinders in the supply chain, warehouse and production
• Effectively manage cylinder returns and analyze conditional factors with improved efficiency
• Improve interoperability with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Hand-Held Terminals (HHT)
• Significantly reduce operational costs of the tracking and tracing system
• Utilize reliable and robust data for improved decision-making

About the Project

At SAP’s recommendation in 2021, the customer chose Engineering IndX’s Digital Supply Chain (Track & Trace) experts to support their optimization initiative. Commencing with the successful delivery of our team’s proof-of-concept, we collaborated with the gas manufacturer and supply chain stakeholders through a series of project meetings, mapping their digital transformation journey by determining business drivers and key milestones. Doing so enabled us to identify the right software solution that would meet our customer’s specific requirements, SAP Corporate Serialization (SAP CorS). Given that many of the customer’s established ERP, WMS and 3^rd party logistics (3PL) systems rely on SAP software, SAP CorS was the best choice to enable seamless integration across their digital ecosystem.

There are three key facets of this project:

1. Standardization
2. Integration
3. Knowledge Transfer

First, standardization of the current system is completed by adding capabilities for the gas manufacturer to track which customers are returning cylinders, aggregate batches of returned cylinders and monitor the conditions of returned cylinders for necessary repairs. Adding these standards with the implementation of SAP CorS, our team simplifies the user experience and increases the system’s scalability to the customer’s other sites.

Next, we fully integrate the tracking and tracing system with the customer’s ERP, WMS, HHT and 3PL systems. This allows the customer to automate more of their processes and access actionable data insights, leading to better decision-making.

Finally, our Track & Trace team transfers technical skills to supply chain stakeholders and system operators, ensuring that they understand how to utilize their new solution for the best performance. Site by site, our Track & Trace team is delivering innovative solutions and extending the customer’s supply chain capabilities.

• Delivered a proof-of-concept and collaborated with key stakeholders to determine a digital transformation roadmap
• Implemented SAP Corporate Serialization solution
• Standardized the tracking and tracing solution, creating more opportunities for scalability
• Integrated the tracking and tracing system with ERP, WMS, HHTs and 3PLs
• Transferred technical knowledge to system operators through extensive training

Engineering’s Expertise

Engineering Industries eXcellence is a long-standing trusted SAP partner and strategic advisor for the digital supply chain that helps businesses connect their networks and realize full end-to-end visibility. Our industry expertise, portfolio of accelerators and extensions for SAP solutions enable businesses to future-proof operations, maintain compliance and realize new growth opportunities. Additionally, our global network of tracking and tracing experts allows us to assist customers with multinational operations and offer immediate support. As we drive this transformation journey, we are confident that our solutions will propel the gas leader to new heights of supply chain excellence.

• Global technology consultant with capabilities for international multi-site delivery
• Long-standing SAP partner and strategic advisor for supply chain transformation
• End-to-end technology implementation and system integration experience
• Deep understanding of industry-specific challenges and processes
• Consolidated competence hub focused on serialization, track and trace solutions