STRATEGIC SOURCING
Amazon Business, explains how her team approached Carnival’ s complex requirements:“ Amazon Business tailors the shopping experience customers already know and love from Amazon. com – including speed, convenience and innovation – to meet the operational complexities of Carnival Cruise Line.”
This approach has yielded remarkable results. By combining intuitive purchasing tools, an extensive supplier network and resilient logistics capabilities, Amazon Business has helped Carnival procure specialised goods precisely when needed, enabling the company to operate its floating cities efficiently at sea.
Solving real-world procurement bottlenecks The partnership’ s impact becomes clear through specific examples of solved procurement challenges. Brenda recounts how“ Carnival previously faced weekslong delays trying to source replacement parts for industrial sewing machines used to repair onboard upholstery, often without a clear supplier path or reliable lead time. Without those parts, the team sometimes had no choice but to scrap the machines altogether.”
This scenario, common in maritime operations where equipment failure can mean costly replacements, has been transformed:“ With Amazon Business, they can now locate and order those parts quickly and directly, keeping essential equipment in service and avoiding unnecessary replacement costs,” Brenda notes.
The scale of transformation is impressive. In just the first six months of using Amazon Business, Carnival ordered more than 6,000 unique items across 500 commodity subgroups. Since implementation, the company has relied on the platform for everything from over 1,200 pounds of espresso pods to 250 gallons of disinfectant cleaning solution in the past year alone.
Technology integration driving efficiency The partnership’ s success stems partly from sophisticated technology integration that addresses maritimespecific challenges. A key breakthrough came after integrating Amazon Business with Oracle’ s iProcurement system, which Scott says“ reduced purchase order processing times from two weeks to just minutes, drastically increasing procurement speed and responsiveness.”
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