Relieve purchasing and release potentials
The company builds large motors and drives for a wide variety of applications. Due to its very good order situation, the medium-sized company was confronted with supply bottlenecks and the purchasing department was working far beyond its limit. To overcome these challenges, the company decided to optimize its purchasing department. To do so, the engine manufacturer relied on external operational and strategic support from Kloepfel Consulting.
The first step was to relieve the company’s own purchasing department as quickly as possible with the help of an interim purchasing manager. The interim purchasing manager was responsible for the strategic orientation of the purchasing department and its operational optimization. In this context, he also supported the customer in outsourcing operational purchasing processes. His area of responsibility also included technical product groups such as printed circuit boards and semiconductors.
Initially, the on-site operational purchasing department was relieved by two colleagues from Kloepfel Consulting. Together, they also created a much more transparent purchasing department, which gave management valuable insight into its (key) figures. The new transparency helped to make important decisions at the management level. Purchasing, in turn, gained valuable capacity to better manage the company’s order situation. In the spirit of lean management, purchasing was largely aligned according to the Kanban principle.
On the one hand, this relies on the personal responsibility of the employees, and on the other on transparent processes and key performance indicators (KPIs). In this way, projects progress more flexibly and dynamically than in conventional project management.
Thanks to Kanban management, for example, all tasks and processes are transparent for the entire team. A glance at the project wall is enough to quickly see if a task has not been completed correctly or has been left undone. Solutions are then sought openly and constructively in regular meetings. This requires team spirit, but also the critical faculties of each individual team member. In addition, special emphasis is placed on ensuring that hierarchies are flat and that the opinion of an intern is respected just as much as that of the project manager. Otherwise, useful ideas could fall by the wayside.
Furthermore, the purchasing of processors and semiconductors was optimized. There are still massive supply bottlenecks worldwide for these items. Several measures have been taken to ensure the supply of processors and semiconductors. Firstly, supplies were secured by increasing order quotas and extending framework contracts from 12 months to 24 months. Secondly, target agreements were concluded to achieve common goals and consolidate strategic cooperation.
The basis of partnership with key suppliers is trust and a shared vision. For this reason, the company sat down with its most important suppliers and developed common goals. Potentials were identified to integrate the suppliers even better into the company. These common synergies were found in connectors, tools and screws, among other things. Meanwhile, one supplier had to be relieved because it had already reached the edge of its capacity limit due to the good order situation. In this context, the customer and Kloepfel Consulting established a second supplier as an extended workbench.
To pick up the employees for the different topics for the project, the crew of Kloepfel Consulting relied on open communication and further qualification of the buyers. As a result, their skills and knowledge are now used and applied in a more targeted manner within the company, which in turn improved the motivation and satisfaction of the purchasing team.
The bottom line was that the measures had a major impact on the basis of the key figures introduced and purchasing now has all the potential it needs to master the good order situation in the face of the prevailing supply bottlenecks. In addition, it was possible to show at the push of a button where, for example, orders were, or invoices were outstanding.
Purchasing went from being driven to being driven.
Do you also want to relieve your purchasing department? Then get in touch now!
ContaCt:
Christopher Willson
Kloepfel Group
Tel.: 0211 875 45323
Pempelforter Str. 50
40211 Duesseldorf
Mail: rendite@kloepfel-consulting.com