Supply Chain Metrics That Matter: A Focus on the Chemical Industry

Supply Chain Metrics That Matter:
A Focus on the Chemical Industry
Using Financial Data from Corporate Annual Reports to
Better Understand Chemical Supply Chains

11/5/2012

By Abby Mayer
Research Associate

Supply Chain Insights LLC

Contents
Research ................................................................................................................................... 2

Research Methodology .............................................................................................................. 2

Executive Overview ................................................................................................................... 3

Growth Through Mergers and Acquisitions ................................................................................. 4

Working Capital and Inventory Stagnation ................................................................................. 5

Unraveling the Cash-to-Cash Cycle ........................................................................................... 8

Free Cash Flow Ratio ...............................................................................................................10

Commodity Pressure................................................................................................................. 11

The Great Recession’s Impact Lingers......................................................................................13

Recommendations ....................................................................................................................14

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................15

Other Reports in this Series: .....................................................................................................15

About Supply Chain Insights LLC ..............................................................................................16

About Abby Mayer .....................................................................................................................16

Copyright © 2012 Supply Chain Insights LLC Page 1

Research
Supply Chain Metrics That Matter is a series of reports published intermittently throughout the
year by Supply Chain Insights LLC. Within the world of Supply Chain Management (SCM),
each industry is unique. To help companies understand the differences, we share deep analysis
in each report.

While we find it useful to understand the evolution of supply chain excellence by comparing
industries, we feel the true stories of supply chain excellence can only be really understood by
comparing what happened within a period by peer group. The goal of this series is to share
these insights.

Your trust is important to us. This independent research is 100% funded by Supply Chain
Insights. As such, we are open and transparent about our financial relationships and our
research process. These reports are intended for you to read, share and use to improve your
supply chain decisions. All we ask for in return is attribution when you use the materials in this
report. We publish under the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 3.0 United States and you will find our citation policy here.

Research Methodology
The basis of this report is publicly available information from corporate annual reports from the
period of 1995-2011 for chemical manufacturers. We use this financial data to learn from past
trends, better understand the current operating environment, and provide recommendations for
the future. We augment the financial data analysis with information from our quantitative and
qualitative research studies.


Executive Overview
Chemical companies were early supply chain leaders; and as an industry, they have a strong
supply chain understanding. They were quick to automate their supply chains and have deep
investments in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Advanced Planning Systems (APS);
but their progress has stalled.

Their supply chains were not resilient during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, and in the last
five years, most companies have lost ground on gross margin and working capital. The industry
has remained stuck on Days of Inventory and gone backwards on Days of Working Capital.

Does this mean that it is time to throw in the towel and admit defeat? We sincerely hope not.
Instead, we would like for this report to be a wake-up call to the industry. We would like for
leaders to see that supply chain matters more than ever, and that it is time to rethink the path
forward.

We believe that the industry has lost its way believing that there are industry best practices that
can be implemented through continuous improvement programs. At the beginning of the last
decade, there was a flurry of major ERP rollouts with a project-based focus. These IT projects
then rolled into continuous improvement initiatives. The issue is a lack of a clear understanding
of supply chain strategy and alignment to holistic objectives. To reverse current results, the
industry needs to align to drive year-over-year balance sheet objectives on the Supply Chain
Effective Frontier with a multi-year road map.

This requires:

 Reorientation. Mapping the supply chain outside-in to take advantage of new demand
signals and rethinking push-based supply chains.
 Clear Strategy. Aligning the myriad of approaches (e.g., Lean, flow, theory of
constraints, vendor managed inventory) more holistically to supply chain strategy.
 Accountability. Increasing accountability for balance sheet and income statement
metrics. While industry benchmarking on supply chain metrics is possible, for multiple
reasons, this is problematic. The rubber meets the road on the balance sheet.


Growth Through Mergers and Acquisitions
As growth has flattened, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity has increased in the chemical
industry. In table 1, we show the sales growth of major industry players by three periods:

 2000-2003: The dawn of business-to-business (B2B) applications and growth of global
supply chains.
 2004-2007: Chemical supply chain global expansion.
 2008-2011: Post-recession recovery.

Table 1. Year-over-Year Chemical Sales Growth Averages

With the slippage of double-digit growth, mergers and acquisitions have been one of the most
common methods for chemical companies to drive growth and increase global presence. This
trend seems likely to continue. In figure 1, we show a condensed timeline of Dow’s recent M&A
activities:

Figure 1. Dow Chemical Company Merger and Acquisition Timeline

1999-2001 2008/2009
Union Carbide Rohm and Haas
purchase buyout

2007 2008
K-Dow partnership Great Recession
with Kuwait reorganization -over
Petroleum 100 manufacturing
Corporation plants idled-
*cancelled*


In 2011, chemical company M&A transactions totaled 17 deals with a value of more than $1
billion for a total value of $82 billion completed in deals.1 As a result, the average company is
awash with technology systems and Information Technology (IT) assets. Companies are trying
to sort out future direction.

Working Capital and Inventory Stagnation
The chemical supply chain leaders are not new to supply chain. In this industry, supply chain
leadership runs deep. They have led the development of processes and systems with strong
participation in APICS, SCOR Council and SAP’s Industry Council. Their understanding of
supply chain excellence is superior to those in the Food and Beverage and Pharmaceutical
industries and they stand toe-to-toe in their understanding of supply chain excellence with the
large giants in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry.

Despite massive IT investments, training and skill building, the chemical industry working capital
values nearly doubled over the course of the last decade. As shown in figure 2, the results are
far worse than the CPG industry. One of the major challenges has been the focus on “projects”
or “technology implementations” without holistic thinking or a leader that is focused on
managing the end-to-end supply chain.

1
ICIS. Chemical M&A market in transition in 2012 after a record 2011.
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2012/02/27/9535537/chemical-ma-market-in-transition-in-2012-after-a-
record.html October 27, 2012.


Figure 2. Industry Comparison of Days of Working Capital (DWC) Progress

The industry, as a whole, has deep roots in manufacturing, and struggles to maintain balance
between Return on Assets (ROA) and Days of Working Capital (DWC). It is only when DWC
becomes a cross-functional metric, or a bonus target across the supply chain, that we see
individual company improvement. Without an understanding of the future direction and Supply
Chain 2020, the industry focus is on the efficient supply chain with the lowest cost-per-pound
versus the more mature effective supply chain that maintains the right balance between the
financial ratios of growth, profit, cycle and complexity at the Supply Chain Effective Frontier.
(For a deeper understanding of these concepts, reference Supply Chain Insights’ Report:
Conquering the Supply Chain Effective Frontier).

The skeptics reading this report might argue that there were many reasons for this trend. These
would include longer supply chains, increased product complexity, lower cost of capital, and
rising organizational complexity. It is our strong belief that the chemical companies have not
made this a priority. The business dynamics are just not the same as a High-tech supply chain
with declining margins. In the High-tech supply chain, organizations weathered these impacts
and reduced working capital by over 50 percent.

Days of Working Capital is an important metric to understand the underlying financial efficiency
of a corporation. By definition, this is the number of days it will take a company to convert its
working capital into sales. The faster this can happen (or the lower the number), the better.


Figure 3. Days of Working Capital

Due to the limitations and high value asset structure of the chemical industry, and the fact that
the industry is three to five steps back in the supply chain, chemical companies have unique
challenges in controlling working capital. For example, upstream partners, located closer to the
end consumer often shift costs and backward in the supply chain. As a result, a low or negative
working capital value is likely impossible to achieve; nevertheless, after two decades of focus,
most chemical leaders are surprised there is not more progress in DWC as shown in figure 3.

The supply chains were not resilient in the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008 and the
recovery has been slow. Although there has been recent stabilization of DWC values,
companies have significantly higher DWC values than they did at the beginning of the decade,
illustrating the need for a holistic end-to-end supply chain focus to keep inventory low and
working capital at manageable levels.


Figure 4. Industry Comparison of Days of Inventory (DOI) Progress.

A look at industry leaders in figure 4 shows a close-up of year-over-year progress in DOI or the
lack of it. One of the issues is industry stagnation on Days of Inventory. This industry has more
deployments of deep analytics for multi-tier inventory optimization, and some of the strongest
deployments of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) than any other industry, yet the Days of
Inventory have remained constant. With a decade-long perspective, we are able to see there
has been little sustained improvement in managing working capital and inventory. This is often
a surprise to the supply chain leader.

Unraveling the Cash-to-Cash Cycle
The Cash-to-Cash Cycle (C2C) is one of the single best measures of supply chain efficiency;
and while it does provide a snapshot method to understand management of cash flow through
an organization, there is more than meets the eye. The C2C is made of three inputs: (+) Days
of Inventory, (+) Days of Receivables, and (-) Days of Payables.

With the goal being a decreasing C2C value, priority is focused on minimizing values for Days of
Inventory and Days of Receivables while increasing Days of Payables. In short, this means that
any improvement in C2C can be driven by up to three different levers. As seen below, DuPont
has driven their C2C cycle through extending payables terms, weakening the value chain by


forcing suppliers to cope with difficult payment terms. Dow Chemical has had the most
consistent inventory management. Figures 5 and 6 below illustrate the evolution and stagnation
of the C2C cycle’s three components over the past twelve years.

Figure 5. Cash-to-Cash Cycle Components (2000-2003)

Compare the C2C values at the beginning of the decade with more recent results demonstrated
by the same three companies and we observe lower C2C values. However, one company,
DuPont, exhibits increasing C2C values and more worryingly, increasing Days of Payables
values; in essence, jeopardizing the supply chain for short-term gain.


Figure 6. Cash-to-Cash Cycle Components (2008-2011)

Companies must ensure that C2C improvement is driven organically by improving Days of
Receivables and Days of Inventory values, as opposed to pushing longer payment terms onto
suppliers. Although this can be an effective way to decrease the C2C value, it is not a holistic
way of engaging with up- and downstream supply chain partners and has the long-term effect of
weakening the value chain.

Free Cash Flow Ratio
Hand in hand with inventory management is the management of free cash within the enterprise.
Although a healthy amount of cash flow is important for a company, too much can indicate a
lack of focus or strategic thinking for the company. In table 2, we show current values.
Companies are at very different levels due primarily to merger and acquisition activities.


Table 2. Free Cash Flow Ratio

Free cash flow has been on the rise for the past decade and chemical companies are missing
the opportunity to invest in themselves and reorient the supply chain for a demand-driven and
pull-based operating environment. Although they are using their money more effectively than
CPG companies, which report average free cash flow ratio upwards of 0.10, there is still lost
opportunity for greater utilization of the cash on hand and better management of inventories.

Commodity Pressure
Commodity price pressure is the new normal. As a growing global population demands more
goods and an increased quality of life with limited resources, the orchestration of revenue
management and price optimization is critical. Due to their placement within the supply chain,
located farther from the end consumer and much more closely tied to raw materials, the use of
demand sensing technologies to reduce the bullwhip effect can be especially advantageous for
chemical companies.

As shown in figure 7, only Eastman Chemical and Huntsman Corporation have been able to
buck rising prices to improve gross margin values. DuPont, BASF and Dow Chemical have
struggled to maintain gross margin while balancing cash-to-cash cycles. When compared to
CPG or High-tech, these companies’ supply chains show less resiliency. For the purposes of
this report, supply chain resiliency is defined as the ability to have reliable results at the
intersection of financial ratios on the Effective Frontier. The more resilient CPG companies
demonstrate a smaller locus of movement and less extreme and randomized year-over-year
results.


Figure 7. Year-over-Year Progress of Chemical Supply Chain Leaders on Gross Margin and Cash-to-
Cash Cycles

While companies have wanted to push year-over-year improvements, they have lost their way.
Most of this failure is leadership. The industry has misstepped by focusing on “projects” and
“process” without a clear understanding of supply chain strategy and holistic thinking on driving
end-to-end supply chain performance. They have been sluggish to adapt from slow, push-based
supply chains to better use market signals and drive a more adaptive and balanced response.

Many companies run their supply chain like oil is still $10/barrel. It is not. Recent annual reports
from several food & beverage companies, located downstream of chemical companies, indicate
that the squeeze is happening. Cost pressures are already being felt further down the supply
chain. For the chemical company, this is an opportunity to build a more demand-driven, pull-
based value network to reduce total supply chain costs.


“Net sales and other operating income increased $19.0 billion, or 31%, to $80.7 billion. Net
sales and other operating income increased $14.2 billion due to higher average selling
prices, primarily related to higher underlying commodity costs, and increased $4.8 billion
due to increased sales volumes, including sales volumes from acquisitions.”
•Archer Daniels Midland 2011 Annual Report, page 23

“[2010] operating profit grew 9%, reflecting lower commodity costs, primarily cooking oil.”

•PepsiCo 2011 Annual Report, page 41

“During 2011, our aggregate commodity costs increased primarily as a result of higher costs
of coffee, dairy, grains and oils, packaging materials, other raw materials, meat and nuts.
Our commodity costs increased approximately $2.6 billion in 2011 and approximately $1.0
billion in 2010 compared to the prior year.”
•Kraft Foods 2011 Annual Report, page 6

The Great Recession’s Impact Lingers
The final event making a notable impact on the chemical industry, as well as the general
macroeconomic environment, was the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the continuing
economic stagnancy that lingers. The chemical industry as a whole was unprepared for the
economic slowdown and caught off-guard by falling demand levels. Some of the top chemical
companies in the world were forced to not only reduce production levels, but shut down
significant portions of their manufacturing footprints. This should have been a wake-up call to
build a guiding coalition for change. Excerpts from Annual Reports below illustrate the severity
of the Great Recession and the drastic steps chemical companies were forced to take.


“At this early stage in the year, product inventories across value chains remain low
and substantial capacity is still off-line."

• The Dow Chemical Company 2008 Annual Report, page 49
“BASF was also hit hard by the deepest recession in post-war times. Sales and
earnings fell considerably, but we acted quickly and decisively. We adjusted our
production to the steep decline in demand by idling or closing numerous plants.
Furthermore, we accelerated our programs to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Unfortunately, we could not avoid introducing short-time work and job cuts."
• BASF 2009 Annual Report, page 8
“We had already increased our focus on margin management at the end of 2008, but
the severity of the downturn required us to take further steps to improve operational
efficiency during the first quarter of 2009. This included taking a closer look at our
manufacturing footprint in order to right-size – without cutting back on our capabilities
– which led to a rationalization, particularly in Europe and North America.”
• Akzonobel 2009 Annual Report, page 34

"In 2008, Praxair recorded pre-tax charges totaling $194 million ($125 million after-tax
and noncontrolling interests), including $118 million relating to severance and other
exit costs associated with a global cost reduction program which was initiated in
response to the continuing economic downturn..."
• Praxair 2009 Annual Report, page 60

There is a need to move from a traditional ROA mentality to embrace new definitions of supply
chain excellence. In addition, there is a need to return to rudimentary financial metrics and
refocus on optimization of supply chain processes.

Recommendations
The challenges are clear for the chemical industry, but the opportunities are both diverse and
powerful to bring the chemical industry into the future with a pull-based end-to-end supply chain.
Our recommendations are based upon the trends and insights gathered from analysis of
balance sheet and income statement data and our understanding of the current struggles of the
industry as a whole.

 Start with a clear supply chain strategy and align efforts to a multi-year road map.
 Focus holistically end-to-end and hold yourself accountable to balance sheet metrics.
 To ensure alignment, include working capital metrics as part of organizational, cross-
functional goals.
 Redefine processes outside-in to improve effectiveness and resiliency.

While these recommendations may sound simplistic, we find that small changes in supply chain
organizations can yield great results.


Conclusion
The chemical industry has done a lot of things right over the past decades, but they have lost
their way. The Great Recession should have been a wake-up call to improve supply chain
resiliency; yet, few have heeded the call. As supply chain leaders read this report, here are our
recommendations:

 Fail Forward. Don’t Make the Mistakes of the Past. An improved supply chain is
more than the latest technology or software purchase. It requires a clear definition of
supply chain strategy with a focus on holistic end-to-end measurement. The chemical
industry is guilty of trying to implement a “project-based” approach to drive supply chain
excellence through multiple, often isolated continuous improvement initiatives. They
have largely failed. It is time to rethink this approach.
 Focus Outside-in. Macroeconomic data in regards to housing, automobiles, and food
trends abound; but despite this information, chemical supply chains primarily run on
historic data (orders and shipments). To make substantial progress to reverse these
trends, leaders need to map the signals outside-in and realize that the traditional
approaches for ERP/APS have not served them well. They need to build strong
horizontal processes for revenue management, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)
and Corporate Social Responsibility focused on a clear vision of supply chain
excellence.
 Step up. Take responsibility. Chemical companies are in a unique position to act as
channel leaders and drive improvements across both their own companies and the
entire supply chain. They have a greater impact on renewable resources; and with the
rise in importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there is a need for greater
collaboration with downstream partners to reduce the impact.

Other Reports in this Series:
Check out our other reports in this series:

Supply Chain Metrics That Matter: A Focus on Retail
Published by Supply Chain Insights in August 2012.

Supply Chain Metrics That Matter: A Focus on Consumer Products
Published by Supply Chain Insights in September 2012.


About Supply Chain Insights LLC
Supply Chain Insights LLC (SCI) is a research and advisory firm focused on reinventing the
analyst model. The services of the company are designed to help supply chain teams improve
value-based outcomes through research-based Advisory Services, a dedicated Supply Chain
Community and Web-based Training. Formed in February 2012, the company is focused on
helping technology providers and users of technologies improve value in their supply chain
practices.

About Abby Mayer
Abby Mayer (twitter ID @indexgirl), Research Associate, is one of the
original members of the Supply Chain Insights LLC team. She is also the
author of the newly-founded blog, Supply Chain Index. During the week,
you will find Abby busy in the Supply Chain Insights Community answering
questions and helping supply chain professionals obtain financial data for
their own analysis.

Abby brings a diverse list of experiences, both academic and professional,
to the team. She has a B.A. in International Politics and Economics from
Middlebury College and is completing her master’s thesis, focused upon the utility of the C2C
cycle in shipping & transport companies to complete the requirements for a M.S. in International
Supply Chain Management from Plymouth University, located in the U.K.

Previously, Abby worked as an operations associate at Peabody Energy in the Powder River
Basin, a restaurant manager in Montana, and a stone staircase builder along Maine’s portion of
the Appalachian Trail. A believer in an active lifestyle, she has also completed a thru-hike of
Vermont’s 280 mile Long Trail, the oldest long distance hiking trail in the United States. As part
of the planning and food prep process, she became interested in supply chain management
when she was asked to predict hunger pangs for the entire three-week trip before departure. If
that isn’t advanced demand planning, what is?!?!


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