Brose wins ‘Oscar’ for innovative purchasing management

The Brose Group has received an internationally recognized award for its innovative purchasing management. Procurement Leaders is a global purchasing association whose award is considered the ‘Oscar’ for excellent procurement management.

The prize was awarded on May 28 in London. The automotive supplier won the award in the ‘Innovation’ category against corporations such as IT and consulting firm IBM, sporting goods manufacturer Nike and chemicals group DuPont.

In its first time entering the coveted Procurement Leaders Award competition, Brose received an award for its holistic concept to integrate suppliers in the development and innovation process. T

he global company with roots in Franconia, Germany completely overhauled its purchasing processes in recent years with more intense integration of product development, production and logistics. “One of the main objectives of this cross-functional collaboration is to optimize exchange with our suppliers for the benefit of all,” said Sandro Scharlibbe, executive vice-president (Purchasing) Brose Group, at the awards ceremony in London.

Among other measures, the panel of judges acknowledged the internal Supplier Innovation Days that the company has been hosting for the past two years in Europe, Asia and the United States. They serve as a platform where selected partners present the results of their research and development work, which Brose can then use to create future-oriented concepts for cutting costs, reducing weight and improving quality.

“Our purchasing department organizes these events to ensure the earliest possible integration of our suppliers with our technical departments,” says Scharlibbe. “We can create series-ready innovations much faster when we get all relevant bodies involved in the evaluation of our partners’ ideas from the outset.”

Brose also uses global technology days and product workshops to network purchasing with the other technical departments involved in the innovation process. To date, this approach has led to over 200 innovative concepts throughout the company – 10 percent of these have already been incorporated into series production.