Manufacturing and procurement

Get real-time, actionable insights into your raw material spend.

Discover what ION can do for you

Over half of the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers use an ION solution to manage their treasury and commodity risk

Businesses are facing unprecedented volatility in the costs of raw materials. Large fluctuations in raw material spend are not easily transferable to the sale price of a finished good. With full visibility of spend per raw material cost component, procurement specialists can build risk management and hedging strategies to flatten volatility, gaining a competitive advantage. With ION Commodities solutions, organizations are better prepared to navigate uncertain market dynamics and capitalize on opportunities.

Related sectors

  • Food and beverage (CPG)

    Procurement of raw materials used in the manufacturing of food and beverage finished goods sold retail as consumer packaged goods.

  • Industrials

    Procurement of raw materials used in the production of finished products, such as automotive, equipment, or chemicals.

Value delivered

  • Challenge

    Unpredictable prices
     
    Today’s price volatility across all commodities is unprecedented, making forecasting more difficult than ever. Businesses must plan promotions based on a cost assumption for a product not yet produced. The more scientific and modern the approach to demand forecasting, the greater the competitive advantage you can gain.

    Solution

    Optimize against volatility
     
    ION offers solutions that optimize your strategic planning. Our simulation and optimization algorithms increase demand forecasting accuracy and help maximize operating profit.

  • Challenge

    Lack of position visibility
     
    Commodity price volatility is always changing. As raw material costs increase, procurement specialists seek better visibility of covered and uncovered positions for both volume and spend needs. Managing a risk position in spreadsheets is no longer efficient. Better controls and faster reporting are necessary to implement a spend management plan that can react as fast as the market moves.

    Solution

    Componentized risk
     
    ION’s comprehensive spend management solutions break down material forecasts to componentize the risk of each raw material. Pricing agreements, cash contracts, and futures/options/swaps are used to provide coverage by pricing component. This gives your business the visibility to compartmentalize risk and execute a spend management plan for all raw materials, from ingredients to packaging.

  • Challenge

    Data rich, knowledge poor
     
    Compiling risk positions can be cumbersome. As market prices move, dashboards and analytics need to be updated constantly. Measuring performance against various metrics is vital to determining the best approach to managing material needs and spend.

    Solution

    Real-time analytics
     
    ION’s solutions offer full reporting of coverage by raw material and spend forecasts. Report versioning offers on-demand variance reporting of actuals versus forecasted budget, market, and historical data. You can test strategies with simulations and access a full dashboard to view performance in real time. This eliminates time lags and helps drive smarter, faster decision making.

Forecasting and planning
Covering and purchasing
Risk analytics and reporting

Products

  • TriplePoint

    An out-of-the-box, multi-commodity CTRM with configurable functionality.

  • WAM

    An optimization solution for supply and demand planning, integrated with ION’s CTRMs.

Latest Commodities news

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ION Commodities leads multiple categories in 2023 Energy Risk Software Rankings

30 March 2023
LONDON – 30 March 2023: ION Commodities, a leading provider of energy and ...

ION Commodities releases Allegro v22

16 March 2023
ION’s latest innovation enables greater success for the Allegro user community. ION Commodities ...

ION Commodities wins CTRM Software House of the Year at Energy Risk Asia Awards 2022

23 November 2022
LONDON – 23 November 2022: ION Commodities, a leading provider of energy and ...

Golden Pass LNG selects ION Commodities

23 July 2022
Golden Pass LNG’s selection is a testament to ION’s proven success in delivering ...

CEZ Group uses ION’s Beta Program for upgrade success

23 July 2022
London,  14 July 2022: ION Commodities, a global leader in energy and commodity ...

ION Commodities named CTRM Software House of the Year at Energy Risk Awards 2022

10 May 2022
LONDON –10 May 2022: ION Commodities, a global leader in energy and commodity ...

Latest Commodities awards

Energy50 2022

Overall Winner

RiskTech100 2022

Commodity Trading Risk Management (CTRM)

Energy Risk Awards 2022

CTRM Software House of the Year

Stevie Awards 2022

Customer Service Department of the Year