Aerial view of a large distribution warehouse loading dock with many trucks outside.

Assessment and optimisation of purchasing operations in a Swedish manufacturer of commercial vehicles

Situation

The client is a Swedish world-leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles. In 2017, it delivered 82,472 trucks, 8,305 busses and 8,521 industrial/marine engines to its customers. The company’s net sales rose to SEK 119.7 billion; an increase of 15% compared to the previous year, and the purchasing operations were therefore under pressure. With the ambition of spending less time on operational tasks and thus releasing more time for other tasks such as strategic purchasing activities, the company asked Valcon to assess their purchasing processes.

Approach

Valcon helped the company assess its general purchasing operations by initially mapping the flow, process and lead times of key purchasing processes. An optimisation potential of ~15% was established. In order to enable the realisation of the potential, future processes were mapped out, and a catalogue of improvement ideas was generated. A plan for implementing the solution was designed based on the improvement ideas.

Results

The project resulted in an optimisation roadmap and governance, allowing for successful implementation and realisation of potential.

Case Studies