On the evening of September 29, voestalpine AG was presented with the Austrian Supply Excellence Award 2016 by the BMÖ, the Austrian association for materials management, procurement and logistics. The company received the award for setting up and implementing a global, harmonised material groups system within an international and decentralised enterprise.
One of the most important preconditions for ensuring efficient cooperation within the Group and strengthening purchasing power as a whole is transparency. Due to the decentralised nature of the group and its numerous acquisitions there was a wide variety of material group systems, making their contents impossible to compare.
There were over 1,500 goods categories with differing definitions. Therefore the aim was to develop a shared “procurement language” in order to streamline the work of around 400 buyers across the group.
Following an intensive project phase, a harmonised material groups system was rolled out across the group. After being introduced to group buyers worldwide, the buyers and consumers were trained in using the material groups system to ensure that data entered using uniform methods can be consistently used to generate meaningful information. As a result, and due to its universal application, the material groups system actively generates significant value for the voestalpine group.
www.bmoe.at; www.voestalpine.com
