D&B’s portfolio manager tool prevents disruptions in Volvo CE’s production
Having implemented D&B’s Supplier Portfolio Manager (SPM), Volvo Construction Equipment can rely on something more substantial than intuition when assessing supplier-associated risks. One foreseeable benefit is that they can avoid production hold ups.
For Volvo CE, delivery accuracy is paramount since the company adheres to the just in time production practice. If one tiny item is missing, all production can come to a standstill—an incredibly expensive prospect. “With D&B’s SPM, we reduce the risk of disruptions in production. The system forewarns us which suppliers are struggling way before they go bankrupt,” explains Peter North, risk analyst for Volvo CE’s purchasing unit. The benefits stretch beyond being able to raise a warning flag in time and advice buyers to look for alternative suppliers. “This type of intelligence also enables us to help struggling suppliers in time. Building up a new partnership with a brand-new actor is both time consuming and costly.”
Peter North’s workplace is in Braås on the outskirt of Växjö, but he works all over the world and is in charge of the European segment. “We deal with about 1,000 suppliers from 20-something countries for our eight European production sites. It’s my job to oversee these contracts.” Peter got a little helper in March 2009—the D&B Supplier Portfolio Manager. “Now I have a global and detailed overview of all our suppliers. We used to rely largely on intuition, which isn’t always completely accurate,” he admits.
Peter is mostly interested in the suppliers’ Rating, Paydex and Failure Score indicators. All he has to do is push a few buttons to access data regarding sector, country or any other parameter presented as figures or easy-to-understand diagrams. Equally often, he wants a closer look at individual companies. The data in D&B’s SPM is easy to export to Volvo CE’s own system which contains loads of data on delivery assurance, quality and much more. “Financial data from D&B was our missing link. We now finally have a complete overview of our suppliers,” he says.