Transition to Chemical Management Services. Opportunities, barriers & drawbacks in a European context

Chemical Management Services (CMS), an application of Product Service Systems (PSS) in the chemical sector, attempts to optimise chemical consumption patterns. CMS works by changing the fundamental relationship between chemical suppliers and chemical customers and providing incentives to both to reduce the quantity of chemicals used. CMS is gaining increasing popularity as a tool for cost savings and reducing the chemical load on the environment. CMS has a high penetration in the USA, especially in the automobile and semiconductor industry, but the extent to which it is being used in Europe is still not well established. This thesis culls the benefits that the companies in Europe realise/may realise through the transition to CMS. The barriers faced by the companies as well as the drawbacks they realised after providing or adopting CMS in European countries have also been analysed. The thesis builds upon the experience of 12 companies that supply/buy chemical services and discussions with stakeholders in Europe. Frameworks have been developed, analysed and proposed for use by the companies that desire to implement CMS. The frameworks help to identify the opportunities, barriers and drawbacks related to CMS. The key opportunities related to CMS include competitiveness, enhanced supplier-customer relationships and better management of EHS issues. Existing supplier-customer relationships, which generally lack trust, and hesitation of customers to share process knowledge with suppliers form significant barriers to CMS. No major drawbacks of CMS were identified in this study.