2020 has not been kind to the chemical industry with the challenges it has presented

The challenges facing the chemical industry in 2020 are not optimistic. The covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent collapse of oil demand have had a particularly profound impact on the energy industry. According to bespoke investment group, the energy industry accounted for 16% of the S & P 500 index in 2008, compared with 2.5% today. Just a year ago, the market changed unprecedentedly.

The pandemic also highlights the need for more sustainable solutions in the coming climate emergency. The new sustainable development legislation will undoubtedly change the goals of lubricant manufacturers. Fleetpoint said the proposed "Euro 7" regulation could be introduced in 2024 / 2025, requiring fuel consumption to be reduced by 15% from 2019, and then by another 15% by 2030. Researchers are said to have begun developing low viscosity and ultra-low viscosity oils to help improve fuel efficiency.

In an increasingly competitive world, fast market access is essential; oil and Lubricant Manufacturers must stay ahead. The recent shortage of demand only needs to improve efficiency, so resources will not be wasted. In addition, new products require new labels, which must go through a rigorous review and approval process. It is important that chemical enterprises should not slow down the speed of NPI.

Companies with a large number of products worldwide must be able to meet the challenge of localization. European products will need to be translated in more than 20 languages on each package and the translation will need to be updated to accommodate changes in regulations or formulations. Lack of consistency in the way packaging and labeling are managed across regions can lead to intensive, time-consuming, manual processes, and costly duplication of effort. It is not only the market behavior, but also the complicated operation caused by different regulations and languages in different regions. In addition, product and labeling regulations change frequently. It is time-consuming to handle this manually through the process of email approval and file mining. However, compliance is not negotiable, and the recall will bring huge costs. Compliance can be ensured by adequate audit of each stage of the approval process in a central location. Compliance does not affect efficiency.

Dealing with third parties can also hinder agility. Many chemical companies outsource their artistic creation and renovation to external agencies. Not only is it expensive to use these institutions, even though these changes may only be updating a claim statement or adding a new regulatory flag, but it also adds another handover in an already complex process. It may take several weeks for the art agent to create the art, and it may need further modification after internal review, which will lead to further repetition.

This complex network of third-party printers is all over the world. Chemical companies that produce consumer oriented products such as engine oil will need to produce smooth consumer oriented labels, which require professional printing capabilities. It is critical to ensure that these globally distributed printers can only access the latest approved version of the label, but the use of manual processes such as email to communicate changes means that there is a high probability of printing the wrong version.

Potential forgery must also be considered; the chemical industry has been a victim of this situation. To solve this problem, many oil companies have created their own unique proprietary fonts, which are designed in a way that makes them difficult to copy. This makes it difficult to copy their labels, but in the manual process, these fonts may replace similar fonts, or worse, the original art files may fall into the wrong hands.

These inefficiencies not only make the chemical industry pay a financial price, but also make it lose opportunities and competitive advantages. In a highly competitive and difficult industry, chemical enterprises can not afford to make these mistakes and reduce their potential. The covid-19 pandemic and the growing global awareness of reducing oil consumption in response to the climate crisis only emphasize the need for efficiency and innovation in chemical management and labelling.

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