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SerCom launches new Supply Chain Toolkit for optimizing ad-hoc materials spend
September 2009
Spending improvements up to 32 per cent achieved
2 September 2009 – SerCom Solutions, the supply chain services specialist, has launched a new supply chain toolkit to help companies more effectively manage ad-hoc materials spend. Case evidence from SerCom Solutions has revealed that spending improvements up to 32 per cent are achievable within some commodities using the toolkit.
The new service is designed to overcome many of the procurement difficulties companies encounter when trying to carry out ad-hoc/once-off orders, such as sporadic re-work packaging, product bundling for promotional marketing campaigns and the inclusion of non-standard components or accessories to meet end customer needs.
Supporting such ad-hoc materials spend places significant pressures on procurement teams to source, price and purchase un- forecasted or partially forecasted requirements in extremely short timeframes. On a global scale, this challenge becomes even greater as these activities are happening in multiple geographies with different supply bases and constraints. Such pressures can often lead to less than optimal buying and inefficient procurement.
SerCom’s new toolkit and process, is specifically designed to overcome many of the inefficiencies that can arise when dealing with such materials requests. Providing an online project management tool, the system has been developed to specifically support companies with a set of processes to more effectively manage such ad-hoc materials spend.
Commenting on the new supply chain toolkit, Rose McCarthy, Supply Chain Director at SerCom Solutions said: “Taking data feeds regularly from all of the customer regions into our Data Mining tools, our analysts can get to work on customer data and transform ad-hoc activity into definable books-of-business. These activities trigger cost improvement projects by concentrating on extracting business from the data that can be tendered in a formal Request for Quote (RFQ). Other areas for focus are lead time levelling, MOQ (minimum order quantity) management, supplier negotiation and supply chain improvements. All projects are managed in our online project management tool and governed by joint customer/SerCom steering panels.”
According to McCarthy, customer feedback to date has been very positive and the company is positive that significant productivity gains and cost savings can be achieved for customers as a direct result of the new toolkit.
All queries to padraig.henry@sercomsolutions.com