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From the
Buyer’s Desk
Ryan Dalgado, Procurement & Supply Chain Manager, Thome
Shipmanagement talks about the company’s procurement process
How important is it to build relationships with your We receive feedback from our vessels on every delivery
suppliers and what are you looking for in your suppliers?received onboard, which is collated and any issues related to
quality of supplies and missed deliveries are taken up with
We would not be able to keep our managed leet the respective suppliers during their performance review
operational without support from our suppliers so building meetings. Suppliers usually take feedback constructively and
good relationships is very important. Aside from supplying our implement corrective measures to avoid such issues repeating.
vessels with the required goods and services, many are experts Repeated failure by a supplier to correct deiciencies could
in their respective ields and so are able to provide us with result in them being delisted from future business.
information and advice in their areas of speciality.
At Thome we have strict criteria for the selection ofIs cost still a major factor in who you use or do you place
new suppliers as well as for ensuring that existing suppliers higher importance on others such as quality, business
continue to perform to our required standards. Selection relationships and what do you look for when buying
criteria for new suppliers broadly consists of whether they supplies?
are equipment manufacturers, authorised sales and/or
service agents or meeting ISO quality standards and having Cost is always an important consideration, however, it
appropriate approvals. Where necessary, we carry out onsite is not the only criteria used when deciding who to buy from.
audits of suppliers’ facilities as well as their management Quality and speciication, delivery time and the location of
systems, processes, documentation, sustainability policies and items relative to the delivery port are also important.
HSSEQ standards.
How has procurement changed at Thome in recent times?
Do you stick with the same suppliers or are you always
looking for potential new sources of products and services?It has changed from being purely transactional to being a much
more strategic function – our processes have been streamlined,
New suppliers are generally taken on when there are no performance of systems have been improved, business
existing suppliers offering similar supplies or services or we intelligence extracted from systems is analysed and used as the
identify gaps in our global coverage.driver for planning ahead. Category management has resulted
Over the last few years we have rationalised our supplier in our substantial annual spend being managed in a far more
base from around 5,000 active suppliers to 1,000. The structured and therefore eficient manner while the introduction
rationale is to channel more business to these fewer carefully- of Supplier Relationship Management has led to a closer and much
chosen suppliers for mutual beneit. Nevertheless, we are better working relationship with all our key suppliers.
always looking for new and better suppliers to ill gaps in
our supplier portfolio or to replace suppliers who are not How sophisticated should 21st century ship supply become
performing to our required standards.and how has technology moved things along?
What are some of the issues you have with suppliers and Over the years, technology has changed the procurement
how can they help you with these?landscape dramatically with the function becoming increasingly
sophisticated. With the increasing sophistication of purchasing
Some of the issues we see often are that items supplied systems and the introduction of e-procurement platforms,
are not the same material or speciication as quoted and also the eficiency of the process has improved dramatically as has
items are also quoted for but not supplied. We also notice that transparency. Further enhancements are under development
delivery times for spare parts is getting longer as suppliers and when available in the near future, will probably allow most
appear to be keeping less stock on their shelves.routine and repetitive transactions to be fully automated. u
Issue 68 2016 | The Ship Supplier | 41