Chemical Manufacturing Industry Reference Architecture
Business capability maps, value streams, and strategy maps for the Chemical Industry.
The chemical manufacturing industry today stands at a crossroads influenced heavily by digitization, the circular economy, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. You are constantly challenged by:
- A lack of clarity while capturing the right information, engaging the right people, or linking with the needs of the business and aligning with operational technology (OT).
- A lack of business and IT-aligned view of mission, strategy, goals, objectives, processes, projects, and measures of success.
- Presence of OT and IT silos that miss the big picture and don’t understand the need for a synergistic approach for successful outcomes.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Using an industry-specific reference architecture is critical to understanding, modeling, and communicating the operating environment and the direction of the organization. This will enable measurable, top-line organizational outcomes and the unlocking of direct value.
Impact and Result
Info-Tech recognizes the value in business-IT synergy. Info-Tech will:
- Demonstrate the value of IT’s role in supporting your Chemical manufacturing business capabilities while highlighting the importance of proper alignment between organizational and IT strategies.
- Apply Level-2 business reference architecture techniques such as strategy maps, value streams, and capability maps to design usable and accurate blueprints of your Chemical manufacturing operations.
- Assess your initiatives and priorities to determine if you are investing in the right capabilities. Conduct capability assessments to identify opportunities and to prioritize projects.
Chemical Manufacturing Industry Reference Architecture
Business capability maps, value streams, and strategy maps for the chemical industry.
Analyst Perspective
Tackle disruption, end misalignment, and enable IT-led value realization.
From the inception of basic chemical synthesis in the 19th century to the emergence of petrochemicals in the 20th century, chemical manufacturing has been pivotal in driving economic growth and the industrial revolution. The latter half of the 20th century witnessed a significant shift toward specialization and diversification of chemical products, catering to a broad array of sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. However, this expansion also led to a growing scrutiny over environmental and safety concerns, resulting in a paradigm shift toward sustainable practices and green chemistry.
The chemical manufacturing industry today stands at a crossroads influenced heavily by digitization, the circular economy, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. Industry 4.0 introduced new capabilities in the form of smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) into traditional practices. These technologies bring with them the promise of enhanced efficiency and productivity and offer revolutionary approaches to minimizing environmental impact.
While chemical manufacturers today still continue to navigate issues such as cybersecurity risks, skill gaps in the workforce, and substantial capital investment requirements, they also must address challenges related to transitioning to a circular economy, minimizing waste, reuse of resources, radical rethinking of production processes, and supply chain disruptions.
Shreyas Shukla
Principal Research Director, Manufacturing Industry
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
| Your Challenge | Common Obstacles | Info-Tech's Approach |
You are a CIO or head of IT who wants to:
Before executing any strategic initiatives, use this blueprint to understand how the organization creates value. |
You are constantly challenged by:
|
Info-Tech recognizes the value in business-IT synergy. Info-Tech will provide:
|
Info-Tech Insight
Using an industry-specific reference architecture is critical to understanding, modeling, and communicating the operating environment and the direction of the organization. This will enable measurable, top-line organizational outcomes and the unlocking of direct value.
Industry Overview:
Chemical Manufacturing
Chemical manufacturing is inherently complex due to the intricacies of chemical reactions, stringent quality demands, and the necessity for environmental compliance. Chemical manufacturing involves transforming raw materials into valuable products through a series of controlled chemical reactions.
Each stage of manufacturing, from procurement to packaging, storage, and delivery, demands precision, safety, and efficiency. The synthesis stage is where raw materials undergo chemical transformations. This is incredibly complex, and requires controlled temperatures, pressure, and catalysis to achieve the desired outcome. Synthesis of chemicals necessitates robust equipment and safety protocols to manage the risks associated with handling reactive and hazardous substances.
Synthesis is followed by separation, purification, and isolation of desired chemical compounds from a mixture of by-products and unreacted materials. This involves sophisticated techniques like distillation, filtration, and chromatography, which have to be precisely executed to produce a finished product with the required purity and suitability of intended use.
Rigorous testing and analysis are necessary to ensure that the raw material and finished products meet stringent industry standards and regulatory requirements. This highlights the importance of having advanced analytical capabilities and meticulous record-keeping practices.
Manufacturers must constantly strive to minimize the environmental impact of their operations. Adherence to environmental regulations and the implementation of green chemistry principles are essential components of modern chemical manufacturing; this requires significant investment in cleaner technologies and process optimization.
Figure above: Value Chain for the Chemical Manufacturing Industry
Business Value Realization
Business value defines the success criteria of an organization as manifested through organizational goals and outcomes, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:
- Profit generation: The revenue generated from a business capability with a product that is enabled with modern technologies.
- Cost reduction: The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with a product that is enabled with modern technologies.
- Service enablement: The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations from products and capabilities enhanced with modern technologies.
- Customer and market reach: The improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.
Value, goals, and outcomes cannot be achieved without business capabilities
Break down your business goals into strategic and achievable initiatives focused on specific value streams and business capabilities.
Chemical Manufacturing Business Capability Map
Business capability map defined
In business architecture, the primary view of an organization is known as a business capability map.
A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation, rather than how. Business capabilities:
- Represent stable business functions.
- Are unique and independent of each other.
- Typically, will have a defined business outcome.
A business capability map provides details that help the business architecture practitioner direct attention to a specific area of the business for further assessment.
Glossary of Key Concepts
A business reference architecture consists of a set of models to provide clarity and actionable insight and value. Typical techniques and terms used in developing these models are:
| Term/Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Industry Value Chain | How the industry creates value for the consumer as a high-level, overall, end-to-end process. |
| Business Capability Map | The primary visual representation of the organization's key capabilities. This model forms the basis of strategic planning discussions. |
| Industry Value Streams | The specific set of activities an industry player undertakes to create and capture value for and from the end consumer. |
| Strategic Objectives | Featured in corporate plans, they are a set of organization-wide standard strategic objectives to achieve the plan. |
| Industry Strategy Map | A visualization of alignment between the organization's strategic direction and its key capabilities. |
| Capability Assessments | A heat map that analyzes the strength of each key capability based on people, process, information, and technology. |
| Capability | An ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve. |
Source: The Open Group, 2009.
Tools and templates to compile and communicate your reference architecture work
The Chemical Manufacturing Industry Reference Architecture Template is a place for you to collect all the activity outputs and outcomes you've completed for use in next steps.
Download the Chemical Manufacturing Industry Reference Template
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Build Your Organization’s Capability Map
- Call 1: Introduce Info-Tech’s industry reference architecture methodology.
Guided Implementation 2: Use Business Capabilities to Define Strategic Focus
- Call 1: Define and create value streams.
- Call 2: Model Level 1 business capability maps.
- Call 3: Map value streams to business capabilities.
- Call 4: Model Level 2 business capability maps.
Guided Implementation 3: Assess Key Capabilities for Planning Priorities
- Call 1: Create a strategy map.
- Call 2: Introduce Info-Tech's capability assessment framework.
Guided Implementation 4: Adopt Capability-Based Strategy Planning
- Call 1: Review capability assessment map(s).
- Call 2: Discuss and review prioritization of key capability gaps and plan next steps.
Contributors
- Chris Goodhue, Managing Partner, Info-Tech
- Kevin Tucker, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech
- Dr. Nihar Kumthekar, Asst. Professor, Operations & Supply Chain, University of Southern Maine
- Priyanga Vani Srinivasan, Senior Project Manager, CEMEX
- Anneliese Mattos, Senior Manager, S&OE, Vale Base Metals