Supply Chain Council of European Union | Scceu.org
Procurement

How BHP moved to virus-proof its procurement

In a speech to be delivered at the virtual International Mining and Resources Conference on Tuesday, BHP procurement boss Sundeep Singh will say the pandemic has proved that supply chains are a key source of competitive advantage.

“Supply chains have had to withstand massive market change, rising trade tensions, disruptive technologies, the effects of climate change and now COVID-19,” he says.

“These challenges have really showed us that supply chains not only need to be cost effective and reliable but truly resilient and sustainable.”

Mr Singh says BHP’s emphasis on moving beyond a transactional relationship with suppliers to a more transparent and collaborative relationship had paid off during the pandemic.

‘Build back better’ … frames the current situation as a clear choice: to make the world a better place.

Sundeep Singh, BHP procurement boss

“We were able to leverage advanced analytics – AI with Deloitte. This helped us to create visibility through multiple tiers of our supply chain. We can now see information on our suppliers’ suppliers and their suppliers.

“We all know increasing visibility into the network to manage disruption is at the heart of future supply chain management, but what do you do with those insights?

“You can have all the control towers and data transparency for your supply chain, but what are your relationships to repair, reroute, reinvent together?

“The resilience came from taking those analytics and sharing them with our other partners, which in turn made their supply chains more robust.”

Mr Singh says BHP did this to help explosives provider Dyno Nobel reduce disruption in its supply chain. BHP also prompted construction machine maker Liebherr to review its stock holdings and identify parts that were better supplied locally.

He says the pandemic has been unsettling but the biggest challenges facing the world – including the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions – have not gone away, and in many instances will be amplified.

“This is embodied in the concept ‘build back better’, a phrase that is becoming popular for good reason,” he says.

“It frames the current situation as a clear choice: to make the world a better place.

“The world must return to growth to help improve living standards and drive prosperity, but this growth needs to be clean, sustainable and to the benefit of all.”

Mr Singh says the BHP moves to shift its Chilean copper mines to 100 per cent renewable energy and to cut scope 2 emissions at its Queensland coal operations by 50 per cent by 2025 were just a start in reducing emissions through procurement choices.

On the supplier engagement front, Mr Singh says BHP was fixing its boarding and registration to make it simpler and was rolling out SAP Ariba so vendors get paid on time.

Related posts

Electric Vehicle Market Procurement Intelligence Report | Evolving Opportunities with Tesla and Volkswagen AG in the Electric Vehicle Market | SpendEdge

scceu

Littelfuse Inc (LFUS) Q3 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

scceu

Neodecortech S p A : 21.02.2022 Disclosure of share buybacks in the period from 14th to 18th February 2022 Download

scceu