Abstract
A petroleum company’s operations are a function of many teams that cannot exist in iso-lation as roles and tasks integrate especially within the planning, scheduling, and logistics team. The information that is supplied and the decisions made by these stakeholders are what make the business function to its full capacity. The problem that exists in the organi-sation’s supply chain cycle is the lack of data transparency across the teams. The data is stored and managed by each division manually, resulting in a lack of integration causing a discontinuity in the process flows. This study analyses an integrated digital system in plan-ning, scheduling, and logistics processes at a petroleum company that is part of a joint venture refinery and the importance of using a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) in that sys-tem.
A case study research methodology is used in analysing one of the petroleum companies in South Africa. A Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is developed by using supply chain cycle activities between these companies and comparing the results of a traditional one with a more improved VSM that considers the value of time in the supply chain cycle. The major findings from using Value Stream Mapping (VSM) are the value of time and costs in im-proving efficiencies, the appreciation of the existing technologies used in the petroleum industry, and the importance of using integrated digital technologies to improve systems.
The results compared quantitative data from the planning cycle, the impact that product production has on product demand and supply, and also time factor improvement in the cycle. The study concludes that using an improved VSM to integrate the digital system is vital in the supply chain for both internal and external use in the organisation as the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) systems require rapid responses.