PROCESS OPTIMISATION
“ And , of course , I was not satisfied with that ,” says Chinell . This outcome induced an understanding of what they really wanted “ beyond the outspokenly expressed .
“ So it triggered us to be more suppliercentric , and that ’ s how we try to work nowadays . That ’ s my mission within the company . I ’ m always the one taking the interest of the supplier into account because we have so many others doing it for the customer . And since we buy and sell products , suppliers are absolutely crucial for us .
Creating the first digital roadmap : Strong supplier relationships at core Based on the findings of their survey , Ahlsell created their first digital roadmap – which determined that strong supplier relationships would be at their core – and decided to approach them in the same way that their customer relationships were approached . “ And the reason for that is , of course , that for suppliers , the routes to market are infinite .
“ We as Ahlsell simply need to be easier to work with : less costly , better at driving their revenue , and better at reinforcing their brand values to make sure that they choose us as their primary collaborative partner . And , once again , digitalisation is the way to achieve this .”
Based on the survey , Ahlsell clearly defined their needs .
Chinell says : “ We put together an RFI and RFQ , went out to scan the supply landscape , and executed a tender to find the best service solution provider for our needs .”
The Ahlsell Supplier Portal As a result , the company created the Ahlsell Supplier Portal , the objectives of which are to :
• Make it easier for suppliers to do business with Ahlsell
• To ‘ automise ’ administration and improve efficiencies
• To make sure that Ahlsell could actively collaborate with more suppliers at the same time
The keys to process optimisation : From master data to supplier onboarding Chinell says that the first area that they looked into to achieve these objectives was master data , to allow Ahlsell to have a more
46 June 2023