Blog Post
From Spreadsheets to Scenario Planning: How HF Sinclair is Driving Supply Chain Savings with SC Navigator
About the Company
HF Sinclair Corporation (HF Sinclair) is an evolving energy company with an enduring family of brands. HFS manufactures and sells products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, renewable diesel, specialty lubricant products, specialty chemicals, and specialty and modified asphalt, among others.
It is based in Dallas, Texas, United States, and has seven complex refineries in the U.S. as well as production facilities in Canada and the Netherlands.
The Challenge
Before adopting AIMMS SC Navigator, HF Sinclair faced multiple challenges:
1. Manual processes and limited agility: Initially, the company was dependent on Excel-based planning, which was the primary tool for internal decision-making, limiting scalability and the ability to quickly adapt to dynamic supply chain scenarios.
2. Dependence on external consultant: Historically, the company relied on a consultant using specialized software to optimize its supply chain. While effective, this approach required external expertise and caused delays in responding to changing business conditions.
3. Complexity of supply chain operations: Managing the supply chain for multiple products across an evolving supply and demand marketplace requires sophisticated modeling capabilities to make data-driven decisions.
The Solution
HF Sinclair’s journey with SC Navigator began with a vision to implement in-house supply chain modeling and develop an optimization practice.
1. Strategic optimization: In its first project, HF Sinclair used SC Navigator to strategically optimize the supply chain for a specific business unit from raw material supply to finished product distribution.
This pilot demonstrated the power of the application in identifying actionable insights without the need for complex coding
2. Tactical planning: The success of the initial project led to broader adoption.
HF Sinclair partnered with Optasoft, an AIMMS partner, to develop a tactical planning model for this additional business unit’s network.
This model enabled the team to perform monthly forward-looking tactical analyses, reducing reliance on manual processes and delivering agility in scenario planning.
3. ETL for data automation: To meet the growing need for automation, HF Sinclair is partnering with Optasoft to develop an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool that will streamline data collection and model updates, while freeing internal resources to focus on value-added analysis.
The Results
1. Savings: The tactical planning project has generated several near-term opportunities for savings, which had previously been overlooked primarily due to the lack of resources required for the detailed analysis that the model now performs.
2. Enhanced decision-making: The tactical model enabled rapid scenario testing, allowing teams to adjust strategies based on market conditions and plant operations. Examples include deciding when to buy, purchase, and/or store plant-generated or consumable materials, and evaluating infrastructure investments.
3. Increased internal capability: HF Sinclair shifted from dependence on external consultants to building in-house expertise, supported by AIMMS’ intuitive interface and Optasoft’s modeling support.
4. Scalable optimization practice: With the initial business unit model fully operational, HF Sinclair is now expanding its optimization capabilities to its additional networks, scaling the SC Navigator application across business units.
Future Plans
Looking ahead, HF Sinclair plans to:
- Finalize the ETL tool with Optasoft to enhance data automation and reduce manual data handling.
- Build a new robust model for supply chain optimization, incorporating formulation strategies and monthly planning.
- Increase awareness and adoption of optimization practices across additional business units.
HF Sinclair’s partnership with AIMMS has helped the company move beyond traditional supply chain planning methods. As the company expands its optimization efforts to new business units, it remains focused on driving smarter, data-driven decisions across the supply chain.
Ready to optimize your supply chain like HF Sinclair? Discover how SC Navigator can help.
