Materials hierarchy

Settings required to define materials in AVEVA Unified Supply Chain models and cases are inherited from other objects in the AVEVA Unified Supply Chain configuration. Some of the settings may be global settings and apply to all supply chain models and their cases, while other settings are overridden in individual supply chain models and cases.

Imports: Feedstock is a set of property information for Traded Material, which is a type of Material Type that I can buy.

• 2012ARAL is a set of property information for Arab Light, which is a type of crude that I can buy.

• 2005ARAL is a set of property information for Arab Light, which is a type of crude that I can buy.

• Ethanol_CornInc is a set of property information for Ethanol, which is a type of Alcohol that I can buy.

Exports: Grade is a set of property requirements for Traded Material, which is a type of Material Type that I can sell.

• Euro IV Gasoline 95 Summer UK is a set of property requirements for Gasoline Regular, which is a type of Gasoline that I can sell.

• Euro IV Gasoline 95 Winter UK is a set of property requirements for Gasoline Regular, which is a type of Gasoline that I can sell.

• #6 3% Fuel Oil is a type of Fuel Oil (High Sulfur), which is a type of Fuel Oil that I can sell.

The materials hierarchy is flexible, so that you can associate different sorts of information with the different levels of hierarchy. The hierarchy is used to determine what can happen to a particular material. For example, only grades can be sold as products, and only a single instance of a grade can be sold from a supply chain model (that is, you cannot have two blenders both producing the same grade). Traded materials are used to distinguish between the different types of product in the plant.

Material types

A material type is a broad category for groups of related materials. For example, gasoline is a material type that could refer to regular gasoline or premium gasoline. Similarly, kerosene is a material type that could refer to heating kerosene or jet fuel. Material types are used to group materials for reporting purposes. For example, on the Sales page the different products are grouped according to their material type, so it is easy to compare the different amounts of each product sold. Material types are global within AVEVA Unified Supply Chain and shared by all supply chain models.

Suggested material types hierarchy

Traded materials

A traded material is a specific variety of material sold. Traded materials are associated with material types to categorize them. For example, Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) is a traded material, sold in many different markets with slightly different final specifications, but usually being very similar and often composed of the same refinery streams. Off-road diesel is another traded material which, while similar to ULSD, has different final product requirements and might be composed of different refinery streams. Traded materials are global within AVEVA Unified Supply Chain and shared by all supply chain models.

Tip: Do not create different traded materials for the same product in different seasons. These are different grades. For example, if you have summer and winter ULSD there is only one traded material ULSD, and this has two grades ULSD S and ULSD W.

Materials of the same traded material are interchangeable, provided the produced grades still meet the quality specifications of the individual grades. For example, you might purchase the same material from two different sources: there would be two feedstocks, each with its own set of properties and, when purchased, potentially different prices. These feedstocks would share the same traded material because the materials are interchangeable. During optimization, the appropriate feedstock would be selected based on the price and quality of the two different sources.

Suggested traded materials hierarchy

Grades

A grade is a set of property requirements that define the allowable characteristics of a product. Grades are usually defined by national or supranational bodies such as the EU. For example, the EU define a set of allowable property criteria for ULSD which allow it to be sold within the EU. This set of property criteria is a grade, and will be similar, but possibly slightly different, to the grade defined by the EPA for ULSD sold in the US. Grades are global and shared by all supply chain models; however, individual criteria can be overridden in individual supply chain models and cases as required, and individual supply chain models can contain unique grades. Different grades are usually created for the same traded material which is sold in different markets with different final requirements (for example, the US and the EU). Similarly, different grades are created for the same traded material that has different specifications at different times (for example summer and winter).

Products

Products are actual materials produced in a plant, usually by blending intermediates to meet the requirements of a grade. The actual products manufactured depend on the plant's market. For example, a plant may produce ULSD according to the EU specification for the majority of its output, but may produce some according to the US specifications if an export market exists. Products are specific to supply chain models, since they are made by blending the outputs of process units in the particular model as required. Cases within the model may further modify the product requirements by, for example, changing the components that can be blended into the particular product or modifying product property requirements.

Tranches

A plant may produce and sell a product to several different customers, each with different prices. The product is the same, but the volume required and revenue differs. Each of these different requirements is a tranche. Tranches are specific to supply chain models, since they depend on the products produced by a particular model.

Example: A refinery may produce ULSD according to the EU specification. It may produce material for its own organization's forecourts, but may also have a contract to supply another company with the same product. This other contract is likely to have a different price associated with it than the company charges its own retail outlets. For example, the company PetroLagado may produce EU ULSD for PetroLagado service stations, but also have a contract with the supermarket Buy n Large to provide them with the same product; however Buy n Large pay a premium for the fuel as they have no facilities themselves to produce it.

Feedstocks

Feedstocks have a slightly different inheritance pattern as they do not have associated material specifications. Instead feedstocks have a set of associated properties. These properties are used to drive the models that AVEVA Unified Supply Chain uses during its calculations. The properties are often defined externally in another software product such as Assay, but may be manually entered in the Feedstocks grid.