An Online Supply Chain Management System for Shell Gas Lanka Limited (OSCMS)

Abstract

In today's competitive world a market leader in any business environment cannot afford to mismanage their customers and suppliers. Shell Gas Lanka Limited (SGLL) is the Sri Lanka's largest natural gas operator in the island. It has many dealers in the country island wide and proves to be the best in present. Natural Gas, especially LPG is one of the country's most commonly used fuels. The above mentioned conglomerate deals with millions of tones of natural gas annually. The macro environment in our marketing arena and the ever emerging competition has given industries new challenges in price sensitive businesses. Especially, businesses catering to consumers through a Network of Suppliers, Distributors and end users where time to market, efficiency of distribution, storage and sales have directly affected the end-user price of a unit. Supply chain management systems are universal and it is a growing concern of all countries.

Currently SGLL is not having an on-line supply chain management system (OSCMS) in placed, which has led to many shortcomings in the current procedures. Therefore, the core objective of the study is to develop a customized, an automated on-line supply chain management system, suitably integrated with the existing SGLL processes and infrastructure to minimize inventory costs while managing its supply chain effectively. The new OSCMS manage and monitor the various segments of the supply chain which includes Shell gas management, Harbor, Terminal, Filling plant, Distributors, Dealers and it holds up the up-to-date stock requirements of them to suit sales and market demands. More over it has an on-line Management Information System (MIS) which assists the Shell management in making decisions, a decision support system that forecast future demands of LPG and an intelligent system that selects a distributor and/ or dealer, based on the order.

The achievements of the project from the requirements capturing to development and further to dissertation preparation can be summarized as follows; each phase has given a unique experience with new knowledge. It cultivated much analysis skill indeed making the author a good analyst and problem solver. Ultimately a development of fully functional software with 99% achievement of user requirements is a success of the life.