CASE STUDY
Boosting purchasing power with a custom feedstock intelligence platform
Industry
Consumer goods
Solution
CAS Custom Services℠
KEY RESULT
4.2M
tons of feedstock mapped to source compounds
KEY RESULT
95%
coverage of total feedstock volume achieved
KEY RESULT
6,000+
unique substances identified and connected
The Challenge
Pricing and chemical information for millions of tons of raw materials
For a large multinational consumer goods company managing millions of tons of purchased materials, understanding what goes into each raw material and what drives its price is a significant competitive advantage. Globalization has made supply chains faster and more interconnected, but it has also introduced volatility: unpredictable markets, shifting supplier costs, and intense price negotiations demand more than intuition. They require data.
To better forecast feedstock price fluctuations and strengthen its purchasing team's negotiating position, the company undertook a comprehensive analysis of its raw materials, tracing each back to its fundamental chemical components. The organization's data scientists successfully identified over 6,000 unique substances across more than 4 million tons of purchased raw materials. But connecting those substances to the original feedstocks via synthetic routes at a scale that could move the business proved beyond the team's internal capabilities. Without dedicated chemical expertise and robust data infrastructure, the analysis stalled, leaving the purchasing team with only a partial view of the information they needed.
For purchasing teams who aren't chemists, having a platform that translates complex feedstock chemistry into actionable pricing intelligence changes how they approach every negotiation.
— CAS Custom Services
The Solution
A comprehensive custom intelligence platform connecting feedstocks to raw materials
The company turned to CAS, assembling a cross-functional team of CAS data scientists, chemists, and developers to tackle the problem at scale. Using internal databases, advanced calculations, and established protocols, the team identified the original components and plausible reaction pathways for each feedstock and its precursors. CAS chemists then applied decades of chemical knowledge to fill in the gaps, completing each reaction scheme where automated methods fell short. The effort covered 95% of the company's 4.2 million tons of feedstock.
To make this chemical knowledge accessible and actionable across the business, the company integrated the output directly into a custom digital platform. Designed for purchasing teams who are typically not chemists, the tool enables users to monitor market developments and draw on chemical insights during contract negotiations. What had previously required months of strategic searching and manual verification was now available on demand, embedded directly into the workflow of the people who needed it most.
The Outcome
Chemical intelligence where it matters most: The negotiating table
With 95% of its feedstock volume mapped to source compounds and integrated into a purpose-built platform, the company's purchasing team now has the chemical context to anticipate price changes, understand supplier cost structures, and negotiate from a position of greater knowledge. The project transformed what had been a promising but stalled internal initiative into a functioning business tool that gives a non-technical team access to chemical expertise without the need to develop it internally.
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