Automation of Sri Lanka's Downstream Petroleum industry Supply Chain Management Operations

Abstract

Ceylon petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) is the entity responsible for handling 90% of the storage and distribution of the country's fuel requirement. This encompasses providing ERP, Laboratory and tanker operations services for the entire industry. The bulk products are received as either imported finished products from oil tankers or refined products from the CPC Sapugaskanda refinery. The product ordering process has been carried manually at the 'Stock review meeting', which is a forum constituting of petroleum industry stakeholders, representatives from Ceylon Electricity Board and Department of Meteorology. Various factors are considered for the bulk product ordering process. The bulk product ordering related decisions are reached based upon the manual forecast and analysis. In order to streamline the decision making process and provide with real-time information, the process automation is implemented. SAP ERP system is being utilized to automate the various factors that are being considered for the above mentioned decision making process. The system will provide real-time information regarding the stock levels, sales, storage tank ullage etc. Several manual processes utilized earlier are being automated to facilitate the speed and availability via the ERP system, such as the tanker programme, Refinery production plan. The system gathers all factors related to bulk product replenishment and forecasts the future consumption and bulk product availability levels on both historical and real-time information. The decision taken at the forum can be implemented via the system by generating the tanker programme for the future months and initiating purchase orders. The operations performed after tanker arrival such as offshore operations, laboratory reports, tanker outturns are being automated via the SAP ERP system.