PBL Trigger 1

Henry Smith works on the company New Solutions as a sourcing director. The company has over 10000 raw materials and more than 1000 suppliers according rough data analysis. After the board meeting, he got a task to decrease the used amount of money to raw materials. Themessagewasclear:thecompanyneedssavingsand savings in purchasing is one solution.

Now he sits on his office and starts to work on it. First, he searches good practices in sourcing management and tools. The company has a strategy but how it will affect to his department? They invested for new it-systems couple of years ago, so there is data available.

Unfortunately,thelastyearshavebeensobusybecauseofextremelyhigh growth that they are struggling with their purchasing data. They do not have clear view on how to manage the procurement of each item and how to manage each supplier and what else information they should analyse. He decides to have a meeting with his team of seven purchasers.

Problem:

How to build a sourcing strategy?

Learning objectives:

What kind of systems can be used to evaluate the suppliers? What Sourcing management practicalities should be implemented? How can the company decrease costs by optimizing supplier management?

Keywords: Supply chain management, sourcing, data systems, Strategy Procurement Suppliers IT system Raw materials Purchasing data Optimization