The PIDX US Spring Conference, with 162 participants from 66 companies, was the best attended ever. Nils Svanberg presented a compelling use case for ConocoPhillips’ push for supply chain/e-business standards. Oil company debt is rising as low oil prices and high costs squeeze margins. Oils are forced to ‘confront cost and productivity challenges that others have not had the luxury to ignore.’ Outsourcing, with 70% of spend, has put focus on supply chain efficiencies, learning from the ‘factory’ model of shale operations. Standards (PIDX/UNSPCSC/OCI) are key but not a silver bullet.
Roger Bhalla, also with ConocoPhillips sees an opportunity for a new PIDX standard for supplier profiling. Bhalla asks, ‘how well do you know your supplier base?’ Operators need to know where a supplier’s legal HQ is located, its credit rating, ISO certification and safety record. He is proposing a PIDX work group for a ‘supplier pre-qualification and lifecycle management data standard’ to plug the gap.
Kristian Kalsing from SAP master data specialist Winshuttle introduced the data management ‘tax’ on businesses which struggle with poor ERP data quality. Kalsing showed how poster child ConocoPhillips (again!) has moved from 100% manual SAP data entry to an automation solution from Winshuttle (with PIDX standards), saving 1.5 minutes per record and allowing a constant headcount to handle a seven fold growth in data.
Some fifty participants took part in a round table discussion on future PIDX standards. This identified ‘hot-button’ categories including compliance, sourcing and procure-to-pay. Participation is invited for these and for ongoing initiatives on supplier KPIs, field tickets, terminal master data and business process documentation. Sign up for the next US/EU PIDX gatherings in October.
This article originally appeared in Oil IT Journal 2015 Issue # 6.
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