Benchmarking Supply Chain Performance:A Case Study in Indian Petroleum Sector

The petroleum industry comprises of activities, which are geographically disbursed for exploration, procurement, transformation, storage, and distribution with transportation network linking facilities through which products flow. The supply chain in the petroleum industry covers a network of processes including placing order for raw material, in-bound logistics and delivery, conversion of raw materials to semi-finished and finished products and their storage, delivery to intermediate facilities, and flow to end customer through distribution channels. The challenge in this supply chain is not only due to the large number of activities, but also due to their dispersed execution which requires a high degree of coordination among all players, leading to evolve a systematic technique for measurement, analysis and improvement in the performance. The sample analyzed has clearly demonstrated that big companies need to rationalize on supply-chain-asset productivity. It demands operational strategies encompassing the logistics and distribution planning mainly for the demand side, which attracts huge investment in the assets and accounts for high pipeline stock. The operational strategies of the companies should be able to follow an agile inventory strategy to storage, which incorporates wireless technology, inventory scenario along with orchestration of demand, and supply data across the supply chain.