Schlemmer Drives International Growth

World map made of metal texture

Customer Profile

Schlemmer is a worldwide operating manufacturer and development partner of international industry and automotive groups specializing in plastic and metal solutions. With 60 years of experience in cable protection, the company has grown from its headquarters in Poing, Upper Bavaria to a leading global distributor. The company supports its clients with intelligent consulting and services. While the Schlemmer Group has traditionally been most closely associated with the auto industry, the company is also active in many other sectors. With more than 60 locations worldwide, 30 production plants in strategic locations, and a mobile factory, the company is able to implement global strategies and be present locally for clients.

With JAGGAER we have been able to raise the efficiency and transparency of our global procurement organization to a whole new level.”

Stefanie Schilhab,

Supply Chain Manager,

Schlemmer Group

The Challenge

A core element of Schlemmer’s philosophy is its focus on efficient, international growth. Instead of transporting large, corrugated tubes across great distances, the company follows the client to their manufacturing location in order to save on logistics costs. With almost 30 manufacturing locations and more than 2,500 employees, the company is able to supply many different industries around the world.

Schlemmer’s continuing growth has also placed high demands on procurement. The company’s manufacturing plants and international buyers had largely been operating independently from one another. This lack of transparency resulted in wasted, untapped potential in supplier management. The company also wanted to set global, uniform standards in sourcing for collecting, evaluating and selecting offers submitted by suppliers in order to save on processing costs.

The Solution

In order to direct purchasing activities for production sites and international buyers centrally and more efficiently, the company opened a new Global Supply Chain Department and redefined processes for supplier management and for global calls for bids.

Schlemmer has shown that successful projects in procurement do not have to be drawn-out and tedious. Together with JAGGAER, the company was able to set up a digital procurement platform based on best practice standards in just a few short weeks. The platform allows Schlemmer to set a clear standard that can be easily adjusted if demands in procurement change.

Procurement on the Right Track as Company Expands

Effective technology solutions will support Schlemmer as the company continues to expand internationally. The JAGGAER platform increases transparency and efficiency in procurement within Schlemmer. This provides Purchasing with an improved overview of each plant’s needs. Buyers can also see supplier information from other locations and can choose to work with suppliers that other plants have rated positively. The new central information database has contributed significantly to improved cooperation between international locations, and has made it easier to share knowledge within the company.

Schlemmer’s high quality standards for their own products as well as those provided by their suppliers lie at the heart of the company’s procurement policy. In order to address and evaluate these standards early on during the supplier selection process, supplier registration has now been integrated into the purchasing platform. Suppliers now enter their information online and the data is reviewed and released by the category managers. This speeds up the supplier selection process and increases cooperation with the suppliers from the start as both parties work to maintain the system’s data quality.

The company was also able to implement global standards in sourcing and cut costs by creating standard templates for purchasing tools and parts. This guarantees that all of Schlemmer’s buyers in all of the company’s locations adhere to the set processes. The tool was readily accepted at Schlemmer due to its user-friendly interface. Now all of the company’s international locations can access supplier contacts and important documents, such as certificates, at any time. The increased transparency in the bidding process when a colleague is sick or on vacation, for example, as well as the automatic bid comparison feature, are additional benefits.

Goals Reached with JAGGAER

  • Central supplier database of all buyers and plants
  • Greater transparency in global supplier management
  • Online supplier registration for each category using workflows
  • Fast standard tenders
  • Better, simpler offer comparison
Business-resources

Growing Together

After the first modules were successfully implemented at the company’s headquarters, the first two manufacturing locations were connected to the platform as well, including access to the supplier registration module. Soon, JAGGAER will be rolled out at more of Schlemmer’s locations, and other departments will be added as well. In the near future, Development will also begin working with the system so that technical questions can be answered more quickly, and so that project managers can access offers from suppliers that are relevant to their projects. Schlemmer is also planning to integrate its ERP system so that data can be transferred automatically and so that the company can implement additional modules later on. The solution’s flexibility means that it can grow along with the company as new challenges arise.

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