Optimizing Demand, Transportation, and Supply for One of the World’s Leading Chemicals Manufacturers

BASF was one of the founding members of Elemica and a customer of Elemica since 2000. Over the course of this quarter-century-long relationship, BASF has taken full advantage of what Elemica has to offer, including expansive use of the Elemica Multi-Enterprise Collaboration Network (MCN) Platform, data harmonization capabilities, and purpose-built applications—all of which are fully integrated with BASF’s SAP ERP systems. Elemica and BASF are also currently collaborating on multiple strategic initiatives powered by the Elemica Managed Services team.  

This relationship has enabled BASF to take a holistic approach to optimizing demand, transportation, and supply by maximizing supply chain value maturity. They are pursuing the two stages of the Supply Chain Value Maturity model, namely Foundational Process Orchestration (core process automation for operational efficiency and organizational alignment), and Advanced Process Orchestration (in depth supply chain order, shipment and payment/ invoice analytics and insights to maximize demand and expand into new markets).

A Deeper Dive into Elemica’s MCN Platform 

Foundational Process Orchestration 

BASF tapped Elemica to digitize and automate supply chain operations to improve connectivity and collaboration among trading partners through a unified data foundation and integrated business workflows. 

Multi-Enterprise Collaboration Network (MCN) 

BASF flexes all that the Elemica MCN has to offer to all external partner categories. The platform streamlines functions such as customer sales order management, supplier purchase order management, invoice compliance, transport execution, and time slot management. The business shared services group at BASF is the primary interface, mediating communication between Elemica and their customer service representatives, transport planners, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and procurement teams. 

Supply Chain Data Harmonization 

The Elemica MCN platform utilizes APIs, EDI, and transactional email for multichannel data integration, transformation, and harmonization across the BASF trading partner portfolio. This data is automatically routed into BASF’s systems, reducing manual work for various BASF personnel across demand fulfillment, delivery, and procurement. 

Advanced Process Orchestration 

Elemica provides the following analytics and insights capabilities to the BASF teams: 

• Order-level visibility and correlation of business signals. It provides a sequential view into the status of orders, shipments, and payments across the various geographical regions of their operations 
• Granular shipment tracking and updates, with fine-tuned visibility into the lifecycle of shipments, including real-time updates on potential delays 
• The analytics and reporting layer of Elemica’s MCN platform initially focused on historical data analysis. Elemica and BASF are jointly working towards enabling a range of predictive capabilities for BASF 

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