What modern procurement has to do with supply chains and Alexander von Humboldt.
“Everything is interaction.” This quote wasn’t the slogan of one of the major supply chain conferences in recent months. It is considerably older (ca. 1803) and was penned by Alexander von Humboldt. As an ecologist of the first hour, von Humboldt related this insight to the interdependencies between human and nature. And it’s rarely a bad idea to learn from nature: what applies to “the big picture” can often be transferred to more specific contexts. As supply chain experts, it is important for us at neoimpulse to focus on exactly these interactions. Because in order to be able to guarantee functioning warehouse management, precise supply processes and valid planning in these areas, it is also a question of factors whose influence must first be identified and then evaluated.
The topic of purchasing is ideally suited for this analysis. Even the best internal infrastructure is worth little if you don’t have the right suppliers delivering the right products at the right time and at the right price. And from a supply chain perspective, this is exactly where many organizations still have real potential for meaningful optimization. Various aspects play a bigger or smaller role here. But when you look at all influencing factors as a whole and directly link the related risks to their impact on your company’s productivity, one thing becomes clear very quickly: the need to act is urgent.
Take the test yourself and ask yourself internally how your own organization is positioned with regard to the following points:
- Does your purchasing process handling with suppliers mainly take place via e-mail communication because direct EDI connections are not possible?
- Do your suppliers struggle with the many, but unfortunately separate systems (keyword “media breaks”)?
- Are order confirmations and delivery times not captured sufficiently and not made available internally, so delivery issues can’t be identified and resolved early?
- Is the shortage of skilled procurement staff already putting your supply security at risk?
- Do you see production and delivery risks due to too few suppliers (stock-out risk in single-source relationships)?
- Are you building inventory without knowing he exact total stock across all warehouses?
- Is lack of transparency regarding your supply chains (e.g. interruptions) a purchasing issue for you?
- Do you lack internal standard processes to jointly analyze and resolve issues or errors?
If you can clearly answer “yes” to even one of these questions, we recommend an informal sparring session with our experts on the interactions described above. Especially when procurement complexity and its impact has been identified as a development area, the search for a suitable platform often starts quickly. This is also a great (and important) moment to get well-founded advice. We’re pretty sure Mr. von Humboldt would agree.