The Dow Chemical Company

Big Data Challenge Kick-Off

2/13/2015

DOW CONFIDENTIAL - Do not share without permission 2

Background

• Shared Hopper Car Fleet (roughly 10,500 cars)

• 6 Manufacturing Sites

• Around 1,500 Consignees- Out plants and Customers

• Inventory Management• Inventory is held at a Plant/SIT (Storage in Transit), Customer Siding, and the Bulk

Terminal.• Across the board, Plant + SIT is where most inventory resides.• 32% of Dow inventory is greater than 60 days old.

• Constraints/Input• Data only reflects Bulk. • Service Level based on orders and not pounds.

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Data Sets

• Data Range: 1/2013- to 12/2013 (One year of data).

• Excel Format.

• Contains data for Bulk Only.

• Data is not perfect. Errors exist so validation, correction, interpolation will be needed.

• Joining Tables will be needed.

The Dow Chemical Company

DATA SETS- DETAILS

Inventory Report

• Accounting Period Month/Yr• Month, Day, Year of Manufacture• Plant of Manufacture• Train of Manufacture• Trade Product Code• Value Center Code• Inventory Net Weight in LBS

Bulk Inventory1.xlsx

Orders Report• Customer Required Delivery Date• Confirmed Order Item Delivery Date• Trade Product Code • Consignee Code• Planned Goods Issue Date• Posted Goods Issue Date• Delivering Plant Code• Order Entry Date• Order Number • Value Center • Month, Day, Year of Manufacture• Plant of Manufacture• Train of Manufacture• Net Weight LBS

Orders_DowChallenge.xls

Rocks Report

• Order number• QM (Quality Message) Header Create Date• Failure Code Description• Carrier Name• Type of QM (Material Flow or Planning)

Plastics_Rocks_DataChallenge.xlsx

Production Losses Report

• Train: 3C• Date: 07-Jan-2013• Lost Production: 244.20• Lost Hour: 7:41• Loss Type: Downtime• Cause: Process Control

Production Loss.xlsx

On Time Delivery Report

• Month/Year• Order Number • Actual goods issue date• Order Create Date• Planned Delivery Date     • % On Time Delivery - Confirmed Date

OTD rail shipment details 2013.xlsx

Service Level Report

• MQty in Display UOMs (Unit of Measure) 217,050

• Total Order Count 1919• Total Orders Confirmed As Requested1556

• Total QMS 120• % OFR (Order Fill Rate) 74.83%• % Confirmed on Time 81.08%• % Not Complied 6.25%• % Not Confirmed On Time 18.92%• Average of Requested Delta -3

Service Level.xlsx

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Goals

- Inventory Increases dramatically as Service Levels approach 100%.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 80085

90

95

100

105

Inventory

Serv

ice L

evel %

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Goals

1. Evaluate and analyze the data given by DOW. Identify/derive key points and define the current relationship between service levels and inventory.

2. Provide some insights by looking at the data. How to improve service levels by maintaining or reducing inventory levels?

• Increase service levels & order fill rates. • Implement an effective inventory replenishment program. • Optimize overall inventory management performance. • Analyze supply vs. demand.• Study lead times. • Compare available inventory with current and future demand to predict

expected shortages over time. • Compute the optimal inventory levels (safety stocks) that will be enough

to guarantee the target service levels.

Questions?