A SHALE Exclusive By Ellen F. Warren
Materials management expert Nancy Lourdes Alonso Islas discusses how advanced traceability, automation, and sustainability initiatives are reshaping global supply chain performance in the energy sector, and what it takes to lead that transformation successfully.
Nancy Lourdes Alonso Islas serves as North America Offshore Materials Manager for a leading global provider of oilfield services and technology. With deep expertise in materials management and supply chain optimization, she has delivered results that improve inventory reliability, streamline warehouse operations, and enhance digital traceability—all while strengthening efficiency, financial discipline, and environmental performance. In this interview, Nancy discusses how her work is advancing transparency, precision, and resilience across one of the industry’s most complex value chains, and modernizing supply chain processes on a global scale.
Ellen Warren: As North America Offshore Materials Manager, you oversee high-value, offshore inventories. What unique challenges does the energy sector face in maintaining reliability and efficiency, and how have you delivered measurable results?
Nancy Lourdes Alonso Islas: I think one of the main challenges the energy sector is facing right now is finding the balance between reliability and efficiency, to have uninterrupted operations while driving cost optimization and sustainability. In my role as materials manager I’ve focused on strengthening materials management processes that directly impact operational reliability, for example increasing material accuracy through performing annual full counts, aligning all business line operations to the same process of receiving, issuing and counting. In this way we have improved stock accuracy by more than 15%, increased reliability for maintenance operations, minimized emergency purchases, and reduced logistics spend. Digital is key in this journey: as we introduced automated material request through different systems, we found that combining the demand signal into an Eco-system fully oriented to pursue correct demand planning is the best way to deliver and support operations to the best possible end.
EW: Global traceability is central to your work. How has implementing digital traceability platforms transformed the management of materials—from offshore rigs to central warehouses—while improving operational decision-making?
NLAI: Global Traceability is a key milestone and fundamental pillar of the efficiency we are running in North America Offshore, especially in offshore operations where visibility, planning and timing are critical. We’ve transformed the way materials are managed across the value chain by having live data available in the palm of your hand, and visibility of the current stock on hand available for operations. The impact has been tangible; as we have improved data accuracy and efficiency, we have also contributed to reducing total lead times by having the ability to track material movement in real time. By implementing global traceability of our main integrated materials on a digital platform, every material transaction from receiving to consumption is now captured, standardized and visible at a global scale. This has enabled proactive decision-making, allowing teams to anticipate material needs, optimize logistics, and help us to prevent stockouts or overstocking.
EW: Integrating multiple ERP systems and automated workflows is critical in oil and gas operations. How does this integration enhance real-time visibility, reduce errors, and support planning across geographically dispersed assets?
NLAI: In the oil and gas industry, where assets and material are geographically dispersed and logistics are highly complex, integrating multiple ERPs is essential to maintain control and operational efficiency. Automating key workflows have helped us to achieve real-time visibility, and it is currently allowing our inventory, procurement, logistics and maintenance data to flow seamlessly across different locations, enabling accurate, up-to- date information. As a result, planning teams can make informed decisions, ensuring that materials and equipment are going to be available in a proactive way, rather than reactive.
EW: Precision and transparency in materials management are increasingly vital for regulatory compliance and operational efficiency. Which tools or processes have been most effective in ensuring all stakeholders work from verified, up-to-date data?
NLAI: Precision and transparency in materials management are non -negotiable. We must have both for regulatory compliance purposes and to sustain operational efficiency. The most effective way we’ve found that we can achieve this is by implementing the combination of digital tools, standardized processes, and data governance discipline from the different business lines within the company.
EW: Managing multimillion-dollar inventories requires balancing operational efficiency with financial discipline. How do you leverage analytics, dashboards, or KPIs to optimize spend, reduce waste, and support better planning decisions in the energy sector?
NLAI: We’ve developed dashboards to consolidate different data from multiple systems. Having this central console of information through different KPIs that we monitor has given us a clear view of Inventory health, material turnover, number of transactions, employee productivity, etc. These insights allow us to identify inefficiencies early on, and then optimize and recommend actions to ensure material is properly rotated and consumed. Consistent monitoring has also helped us to communicate critical information across different key stakeholders, such as finance, maintenance, planning, and others functions, so we can make better decisions, and thus contribute to an increase in cash flow.
EW: Sustainability is a growing priority in offshore and field operations. How have your automation and traceability initiatives helped reduce environmental impact—such as energy use and greenhouse gas emissions—while maintaining operational performance?
NLAI: Sustainability is a topic that is becoming more relevant, and it has become now an integral part of how we measure operational success in offshore and field operations. Enhancing automation through digital traceability, we have optimized material flow from the request to the delivery. We are contributing to the supply chain of products with less costs on logistics, improving material planning and faster delivery times. Reducing fuel consumption through better logistics, reducing the need for paper transactions, and cutting down the time final users are in front of a computer has helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, therefore contributing to our corporate Net Zero environmental goal. These actions that we have implemented have demonstrated that efficiency and sustainability are not opposite goals. We’ve built a more agile, energy-efficient, and environmentally responsible supply chain.
EW: Rolling out digital traceability platforms often involves significant change management. How do you drive adoption, upskill field and warehouse teams, and foster cross-functional collaboration in complex, high-risk oil and gas environments?
NLAI: A roll-out of global traceability in our industry requires more than just technology, it depends on people. My focus so far has been driving adoption through communication and aligning all team members around a common purpose: improving reliability, efficiency and accuracy while simplifying how we work. We have done several engagements and cross-functional collaborations with field operations and warehouse teams in the early stages of the implementation, so they can contribute with feedback on how we can improve the digital tools. This approach helped us build a level of engagement to ensure that our digital traceability tool would meet operational needs, and that will help to improve data visibility at all levels. As a result, adoption rates have exceeded expectations, and we see that data quality has improved and collaboration has strengthened.
EW: Offshore supply chains face unique operational pressures, from logistics delays to equipment criticality. How do digital tools help your teams anticipate disruptions, respond quickly, and maintain consistent material availability?
NLAI: Offshore supply chains tend to operate under unique conditions where weather disruptions, logistics constraints and material/equipment availability are critical. Having real-time data has become critical to respond to operational needs and to proactively reduce the total lead time of products for an operation’s performance. Through our Global Traceability platform and dashboards, we have gained real-time visibility to make better decisions and predict proactive planning that helps us to align and meet material/equipment availability with operational demand. This data has allowed us to anticipate disruptions before they escalate and communicate them to our key stakeholders, so we can proactively alert and flag potential shortages or delayed shipments that could potentially affect field and offshore operations. By connecting data, people, and processes digitally, we’ve built the capability to maintain reliability, even if there are logistical or environmental challenges in place.
EW: Standardizing processes across multiple business lines and regions can be difficult. What strategies have proven most effective in maintaining precision, reducing discrepancies, and aligning teams while supporting regulatory and safety compliance?
NLAI: It has been challenging, but my first focus has been building standardized operating models. The key to achieving consistency without affecting performance has been a combination of collaboration, clear governance, structured process ownership and strong engagement at all levels, from the top management team to team members on the field.
Defining end to end materials management processes that fit local operational realities have been fundamental. We are not inventing the wheel here; we are aligning everyone to the same objective through a standard process.
EW: With the oil and gas industry becoming increasingly connected and data-driven, which innovations or strategies do you see as most promising for advancing traceability, automation, and operational resilience—and what lessons can peers apply in their own operations?
NLAI: I see huge potential for the industry to move forward with global traceability and automation. In the not too far future, integrated digital platforms will enable more predictive planning and reduced manual errors, so we can focus on value-added activities. Eventually, AI will allow us to identify trends, optimize inventory, and anticipate potential bottlenecks before they impact operations. Technology will never replace the human workforce, but it can drive efficiency on how we use our people.
Based on my experience, I advise peers to start with the easy wins to build momentum, engage teams across different functions and operations to drive adoption, and foremost, use metrics to learn and scale improvements. When these are applied thoughtfully, your result will strengthen reliability, reduce waste, and enable faster, smarter decision-making across the organization.
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