Helping industries meet the challenges of tomorrow

How does digital data enable Air Liquide to better meet the expectations of its customers?

Just like our customers, we have to produce sustainably, offer a quality experience and meet the latest industry expectations. Data is a powerful enabler for us in overcoming these challenges. The Integrated Bulk Operations¹ program, which is currently being rolled out, is a good example. By digitally connecting logistical assets (production plants, tanks installed on customers’ sites or trucks), we are able to collect and analyze data to optimize the liquid gas supply chain in real time. The key here is that our logistics teams can anticipate customer requests and identify the right time for delivery by organizing more efficient and reliable delivery rounds. This gives us an agile logistics chain for better customer service while lowering our CO₂ emissions!

What role do employees play in this digital transformation?

Our employees are experts in our business processes and are in close contact with our customers. So involving them from the start is crucial when working together to build solutions that can improve our operational efficiency. This in turn provides a better customer experience. For example, the Digital and R&D teams worked with operators in France to design a solution that would increase their productivity in preparing customer orders for gas cylinders while optimizing handling operations.

What is the greatest challenge in optimizing data management?

Supporting decision-making, anticipating needs, managing performance and more. There is a wealth of data available and our teams were quick to see the value in capitalizing on it. So much so that you hear them talking about “their” data. Now the challenge is to upskill and train teams, an indispensable investment that maximizes the potential of data. In the future, using data will be part and parcel of employees’ everyday work.

A new ecosystem intelligence approach is being tested in the Industrial Merchant activity. What does this involve?

Essentially, it is about challenging our orthodoxies around how we look at current and new markets. The idea is to go outside our normal bounds and look at all stakeholders, their drivers of change and their interactions. We then build a strategic analysis that better addresses an individual market, prioritizing actions and reducing the time to market for relevant solutions. To do this, we need to be part of a broad, diverse ecosystem where we are connected with key stakeholders. Supported by the i-Lab², we’re testing the approach on some market segments such as water treatment in the pharmaceutical industry.

How strategic is this approach for your business?

To stay ahead in a fast-changing world, we must detect trends and understand how they will shape our business regarding new customers, stakeholders (customers, customers’ clients, suppliers, public authorities, etc.) and business models. By being proactively involved in an ecosystem, we can deepen our knowledge and ask ourselves the right questions: What will this customer look like in five years? How will energy transition trends affect customers, and what impact will they have on their business and on the value chain? Who are the new players in the market? This approach puts us at the forefront of change so we can understand how disruption impacts our customers’ needs, and we can anticipate their future expectations and come up with new solutions.

What is the value for Air Liquide and your customers?

An ecosystem-based process gives a much better read of the customer’s environmental, regulatory and supply chain context across markets, helping us to prioritize actions and align resources. We start with their pain points and ecosystem changes and then build on them using a customer-centric approach. This can also lead to unlikely pairings or partnerships that accelerate our thinking and shape customer outcomes. By identifying critical water treatment challenges within the pharmaceutical industry that could be addressed by our technological expertise, we forge new connections to solve issues and create value for every player in the ecosystem.

Invent

To meet the challenges facing society, a profound transformation of industry is underway. Air Liquide is contributing by working with its customers to build more innovative and sustainable industries. The Group develops new solutions for the future that support those involved in bringing about new industrial revolutions, whether that is electric vehicles, 3D printing or the agriculture of tomorrow.