Accenture Integrated Procurement Solutions for the Automotive Industry

It is getting a lot harder to obtain the best-quality goods and services at the lowest possible cost of ownership in a multi-polar world—defined by multiple centers of economic power and activity, where supply chain complexity is deepening and the sources of competitive advantage constantly shift.

Yet procurement masters in a recent Accenture survey had productivity levels 30 percent higher than their peers—and their procurement organizations typically cost only half as much to run. These leaders thoroughly evaluate selective areas of direct and indirect spend in order to maximize cost savings in a given area.

The Accenture Integrated Procurement Solutions components include:  

• Global Component Cost Analysis—Enables a comprehensive understanding of the manufacturing-based selling price of any given product or component, across all geographies. The analysis provides the cost knowledge that companies need for fact-based negotiations with suppliers. Thus empowered, they can drive both cost recovery and cost avoidance, as well as enhancing design to cost.
  
  
• Global Strategic Sourcing—Encompasses a process of cross-functional strategic sourcing for category groups. It starts by determining sourcing strategy and goes on to optimize requirements. This optimization includes simplifying product structures and rationalizing and standardizing relevant parts, as well as long- and short-listing suppliers, negotiating with those suppliers and implementing contracts.

• Benchmarking—The capability’s global benchmarking database leverages Accenture’s unparalleled global pricing knowledge and experience to help companies accurately compare their indirect material purchasing costs with those of both competitors and industry leaders. Moreover, because the database provides a range of pricing options, both regionally and globally, it can help optimize costs across all relevant categories.

• Supplier Relationship Management—The capability selects a supplier base and categorizes it as either strategic or non-strategic. It also contains a methodology to measure supplier performance. And by integrating key suppliers early in the product development process and maintaining strong relationships with them all along the supply chain, it builds a mutually beneficial relationship that can help gain and preserve local knowledge as well as preventing the loss of market share to cheaper local producers.

• Process Excellence and Technology Enablement—Can capture accurate spend information critical to understanding a company’s exposure to one supplier. Aggregated data supports fact-based negotiations on total spend, helping shrink the strategic supplier base and associated costs. Consistent processes and tools help steer those responsible for procurement toward standard items from approved or preferred suppliers. And standardized reporting establishes expectations for suppliers, who get a chance to provide feedback that can reduce the cost of doing business.

• Accenture Profit Recovery and Analytics—Combined with traditional post-payment recovery audit capabilities, this capability can help optimize payment terms and enhance compliance by proactively identifying processing errors before payments are made.

• Performance, Organization and Talent Management—Helps manage the measurement, the tracking and the reward mechanism for successful performance in procurement. Accenture also uses the capability to help clients design detailed organizational structures for delivering procurement goals and develop procurement talent through enhanced management of roles, careers and learning.