These outsourcing relationships were nominated for the 2002 Editor's Choice Awards. www.outsourcing-journal.com Author Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
In the manufacturing sector, where companies must purchase a considerable number of components and various goods and materials, operating costs can increase significantly in the area of procurement. The same applies to the number of suppliers of such materials.
MAN Roland, which produces a wide range of offset presses for newspapers and digital web, aimed to reduce expenses in its purchasing department and also optimize its supply chain. Optimization, according to Rudolf Kohlert, the company's purchasing director, meant reducing the number of suppliers from which to purchase materials. They achieved both goals by outsourcing MAN's purchasing process Roland to Unitec.
Kohlert says Germany-based Unitec has reduced the number of small suppliers (under 50 Euros per year) used by MAN Roland from 160 to just one — Unitec. The supplier's web-enabled NetSourcing services coordinate MAN Roland orders for all suppliers in one unico order form and have reduced invoices to just one per month — thus reducing the manufacturer's accounting and processing costs.
In addition to paperless purchases, Unitec's eProcurement service includes order status tracking and options for urgent delivery. The website database consists of more than 44,503 items from 3,240 suppliers, with multilingual descriptions.
In addition to eProcurement services, Kohlert says MAN Roland chose Unitec as its outsourcing partner due to its expertise in C-parts management concepts and efficiency. The company's Activity-Based Cost Analysis defined “C-parts” as those that represent five percent of total purchasing volume but have a high rate of purchase orders.
MAN Roland transferred the work to Unitec over a two-month period, in phases for different purchasing departments and item groups. MAN Roland's return on investment wasn't just reduced costs; Freed from administrative tasks, its purchasing staff was able to focus on more important tasks.
