SNS implements WMS at Natpet Yanbu facility

Natpet, owned at 57% by Alujain Corporation, has built a 400,000 MT/Year polypropylene plant in Yanbu Industrial City on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. Natpet will be the first company in the region to produce premium grades of Polypropylene using the Spheripol process from LyondellBasell, such as Heterophasic and Random Copolymers.

Natpet Yanbu site includes a storage facility that spreads over a 40,000 sqm are and produces more than 950 derivates of propylene and polypropylene. The warehouse is split into a 14,000 sqm covered facility and 26,000 open yard and silo space. It handles the storage of raw material for production as well and the finished goods with an inbound daily volume from the production line of around 900 pallets and an outbound daily volume to containers and trucks of about 850 pallets.

The new warehousing operation is run by AlMajdouie DeRijke Logistics (MDR) and both Natpet and MDR have chosen to work with SNS on the Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) project based on SNS' high expertise in this domain and its track record of many successful implementations.

The WMS application implemented at Natpet was customized by SNS to automate the receiving and putaway processes of pallets from production, a 24/7 operation. The system automatically converts the estimated production quantity into bags quantity and pallets and determines the number of bin locations required for storage. In addition, Natpet and MDR required the WMS to handle the Proof of Delivery (POD) received from the shipping lines after goods are sent from the warehouse. Due to the nature of yard operations, multiple reports were developed on the Infor WMS to enable MDR to operate fully paper based while maintaining the accuracy and control required by Natpet.

"We were confident of SNS' capabilities in the implementation the WMS solution for our petrochemical storage facility based on their reputation in the market" said Ahmad Annan, IT Manager at Natpet. "We are even more pleased with the constant support they are providing us after the success of the project."

The interfaces developed on Boomi Platform between Infor WMS and SAP ensured a smooth integration between both systems. SNS' previous experience with SAP system guaranteed a successful implementation in collaboration with Natpet and MDR IT team. This integration ensured the elimination of paper and email documents, full data integrity and high visibility on the facility operation.

"We are grateful for Natpet for the trust they have placed in our team and expertise in handling supply chain solution implementation. The implementation of Infor WM at the Yanbu site is SNS' first Petrochemical facility project and we are confident of more to come. SNS proves once again that the supply chain solutions they provide are adaptable to different environment and operations,"

said Mario Ghosn, General Manager at SNS.