Project Example
Project management for supplier management
Following internal, groupwide quality specifications in a consistent and comprehensive manner, thus ensuring long-term commercial success, presents many companies with enormous challenges. It becomes even more complex, however, to ensure a supplier is complying with agreed quality standards. KBC took on this task for an OEM – with a measurable degree of success!
Background
Our customer, a car manufacturer, has its own quality specifications in place for its products and accompanying processes for the entire supply chain. These specifications closely parallel the norms generally applicable in the industry (DIN, VDA, …) and are a fixed component of contractual agreements with suppliers. In order to ensure compliance with the quality specifications, it is necessary to review their implementation on-site at the suppliers and show any discrepancies. This happens as part of a so-called requalification. As a result of a large number of suppliers, the comprehensive execution of requalifications presented our customer with a challenge.
Specific assignment
- Increase the coverage of on-site reviews at suppliers
- Identification of discrepancies and agreement on countermeasures
- Improvement of supplier performance in relation to delivery reliability and quality
KBC approach
- Draw up a key performance indicator based process to determine the relevant suppliers
- Tool-based project management to manage more than 250 requalifications globally per year
- Use of interactive software to document and track the results incl. editing options for the suppliers
- Carrying out the requalifications (1-2 days on-site per supplier)
- Regular sessions with the customer in order to inform them of the general progress of the project
- Integration of results documentation in the customer’s IT inventory system
Achieved Effect
With targeted selection of relevant suppliers, tool-based project management and the deployment of a software that allowed direct editing by suppliers, we were able to reduce the effort on the customer side to a minimum and, at the same time, to significantly increase the effectiveness.
