Procurement Excellence Programme

Referring to our previous newsletter BB Electronics has now worked with the Procurement Excellence Programme for about ½ year. The first project wave has been carried through and finalised. This wave concentrated on the semi-conductor, cable and connector categories. The project team is now in the middle of project wave 2, which focuses on the following 3 categories: PCB, mechanics and moulded plastics.

The major purpose of the project is to introduce new tools and methods to better understand the dynamics of our suppliers' supply chain and market mechanisms, focusing on decreasing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

To be able to carry through an in depth analysis of the categories the work is carried out according to a structured project model. The project model stretches over 12 weeks. During these 12 weeks the project team is, among other things, arranging both internal BB Electronics and external supplier / manufacture workshops to be able to understand and catch relevant information about the specific markets and industries. Furthermore, a detailed desk study, including e.g. expert interviews and internet analysis, is included in the project. Combined together it significantly improves all the knowledge base that following can be used to obtain the best possible results in the RFQ process regarding the categories.

Furthermore, the RFQ process is now carried through with a web-based quoting system. Working with the system has resulted in considerably shorter completion time on the RFQs. The perspective is also to use this web-based system in relation to offering customers prices on new projects and therefore we expect this to be handled both faster and smoother in the future.

There are several goals related to the project. Following a few and important ones will be described. One is to optimise the internal BB Electronics processes related to procurement. Another goal is for all categories to create a preferred list of suppliers that are competitive and are offering the needed high quality. With these suppliers we will develop a close/r business relationship.

By this BB Electronics will be able to recommend these good and trustworthy suppliers to our customers. At last but not least the goal is of course also to be able to achieve the best possible prices to make both our customers and BB Electronics even more competitive over time.