Scania’s global approach to purchasing
Interview

Scania’s global approach to purchasing

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This spring, after the offer from Volkswagen went through, Scania became a full member of the Volkswagen Group. With a stable long-term ownership situation, Scania can now expand cooperation projects with Volkswagen and MAN in order to support its growth strategy up to 2020, among other reasons.

Purchasing, for which Andrea Fuder took over responsibility in 2012, is one of the areas where collaboration has progressed furthest.

After working with quality issues and logistics in the Volkswagen Group, moving up to various management positions in purchasing was a natural step.

Fuder also worked for several years as head of purchasing at Bentley Motors in Crewe, UK. “From there I moved back to Germany and Wolfsburg, serving as Head of Group Purchasing Interior at VW Group.” Fuder’s attitude is that every new job brings new experiences.

Working in Södertälje, Sweden, she is particularly struck by Scania’s corporate culture. “Scania has strong values that are present in all its operations. This strengthens the whole company and gives it very dedicated employees. “By coming here with a different set of experiences, I quickly saw good things that we should safeguard, but also opportunities for improvements.

I worked in a similar way during my years at Bentley. The results are usually good when you can take experiences from different places and bring them together. For me, this is a dynamic way of working, which means that we can refine and further improve the tools and methods in our purchasing processes.” In recent years, Scania has increased its sales in emerging markets.

Fuder has worked a lot to introduce a more global approach in Scania’s purchasing organisation. Close partnerships between Scania and suppliers in more and more countries enable them to develop new solutions jointly. “We are a global company and must therefore also find solutions to various legal requirements. For example these may involve local content requirements in our products.”

As for material costs, Fuder is now also beginning to see positive effects from Scania’s purchasing cooperation with MAN, which is helping to improve Scania’s earnings. “We have worked hard on this and see great continued potential,” she says.

Source: Scania

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