Volkswagen Group Procurement’s global supplier network currently includes about 40,000 partners. The Group business platform “ONE”, which was developed to make cooperation with all these partners even leaner and more efficient in the future, went live yesterday. ONE links more than 300,000 users from the business units of the Volkswagen Group and suppliers, making it one of the largest platforms within the Group.
Rapid, simple processes and a uniform system for the entire purchasing process – these are the advantages of the new digital platform ONE, which will benefit both sides of the supply chain.
Karsten Schnake, Head of Global Series Coordination with Volkswagen Group Procurement, said: “ONE will lay the foundation for realigning our network in the optimum way for the future. This is a milestone on the way to establishing the most sustainable and innovative network in the global automotive industry.”
Thomas Eckardt, Head of Process Management Supply Chain, Volkswagen Group Procurement, emphasized the partnership approach used for the development of the new Group business platform: “For the redesign of our digital procurement platform, feedback from our users, the suppliers and related operational divisions such as Finance, Production, Logistics, quality assurance and technical development, was especially important. This way, we were able to orient the system specifically to users’ needs.”
Many features of the platform were developed in close cooperation with suppliers during several Supplier Interaction Days, which are part of the FAST initiative. Feedback concerning the previous supplier platform was incorporated directly in the continuing development of the platform. Functions such as the new rapid access to applications, improved alerting and the mobile phone capabilities of ONE not only make the platform more user-friendly but also improve its efficiency. Suppliers were also involved in the test phase of ONE. 400 users have been thoroughly testing the new platform since December 2016.
The new ONE platform was launched on the well-known Internet address www.vwgroupsupply.com on April 27, 2017.
