Procurement is integral to the supply chain, ensuring the steady flow of quality materials and services, negotiating costs and driving innovation. Quality assurance, risk management and aligning strategies with supply chain goals are critical functions, highlighting its importance in overall supply chain efficiency and corporate responsibility.

With this process, the need for traceability and transparency is essential for organisations to build trust, ensure quality and safety standards and support sustainability. RELATIONS, an SRM tool by LeanLinking, helps procurement teams worldwide, including at Starbucks, Roche and DS Smith, to measure the performance of their suppliers and stay on top of all the compliance and documentation needed. By consolidating data and streamlining processes, the Supplier Relationship Management tool optimises supply chain operations, reducing waste and inefficiency.

Lars Kuch, Founder of LeanLinking, says: “Supply chain traceability and transparency are vital for maintaining trust, ensuring quality and safety, complying with regulations and enhancing overall efficiency.

“They enable companies to meet consumer demands for ethical practices and sustainability while providing the insights needed to manage risks, reduce waste, improve cash flow and optimise supply chain operations.”

Challenges facing the transparency demand

While this is vital, it comes with its challenges. Lars outlined the issue which organisations face.

He says: “Companies try to be too ambitious starting out, such as aiming to map out the entire supply chain for various products, which can be a daunting task given the numerous steps and suppliers involved. Tracking two or three steps back can already be complex, let alone trying to trace everything down the line.”

There is also the mismatch between the desire of the business and its actual outcome. Organisations might strive to have a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain, investing in resources to map out every detail. But they can overlook that a basic overview can address most of their needs.

LeanLinking states that about 80% of the issues faced can be resolved with just 20% of the data. Focusing on the first few steps that bring the most value, such as tracking three links back, can be more effective and efficient.

There is also the risk of overcomplicating the process, leading to wasted resources and efforts. Lars adds: “Instead of aiming for perfect transparency from the start, companies should prioritise the most critical data that will solve the majority of their cases.” 

This focused approach can deliver significant benefits without the overwhelming complexity of a fully mapped supply chain.

Lars continues: “Companies face challenges in establishing supply chain transparency due to overly ambitious goals and a misalignment between their desires and actual needs. By starting with a basic, focused approach and gradually expanding their efforts, they can effectively achieve the transparency needed to address most of their issues and improve overall supply chain management.”

How LeanLinking can help

Through its platform, LeanLinking can help companies to ensure traceability and transparency in procurement with RELATIONS by providing tools that ensure compliance, efficiency and improved performance management.

Traceability

The platform supports compliance with sustainability and legal requirements by offering robust traceability features. These capabilities allow companies to track products and materials through the supply chain, ensuring that they meet environmental standards and regulatory obligations. This is crucial for maintaining trust and fulfilling corporate social responsibility commitments.

Transparency

LeanLinking enhances transparency in procurement through several key features aimed at boosting efficiency and performance.

NCR Module

This module includes tools such as scorecards and performance reports, allowing users to evaluate and manage supplier performance effectively. By sharing data between buyers and suppliers, the platform facilitates the uploading of delivery service data, providing clear insights into how well suppliers are meeting delivery and performance standards.

Supplier Scorecard

An upcoming feature, the Supplier Scorecard, will offer a consolidated metric for each supplier's performance. This scorecard can include both hard measures (like delivery timeliness and quality) and soft measures (such as the handling of faults and issues). By combining these scores into a unified metric, LeanLinking provides a comprehensive view of supplier performance, enabling more informed decision-making.

Data Sharing

The platform promotes transparency by allowing companies and their suppliers to share various perspectives on processes, performance and relationships. This open exchange of information helps identify areas for improvement and fosters collaboration, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both parties.

Lars says the goal of RELATIONS is to involve all stakeholders in efforts for transparency. With these efforts, it looks to enhance profitability. By providing clear, accessible data on supplier performance, LeanLinking’s platform, RELATIONS, helps companies optimise their procurement processes, reduce inefficiencies and improve overall supply chain performance.

Lars adds: “RELATIONS offers comprehensive tools for enhancing traceability and transparency in procurement. By supporting compliance, enabling detailed performance evaluation and facilitating open communication between buyers and suppliers, it helps companies achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in their supply chain operations.”

Creating transparency across the supply chain

Through the RELATIONS platform, LeanLinking can enhance transparency across the procurement space by providing comprehensive visibility and insights across the logistics and supply chain domains. This platform bridges communication gaps and facilitates understanding between the procurement teams and other stakeholders, such as warehouse employees who directly interact with the suppliers and the products they handle.

Traditionally, procurement professionals may not have direct interaction with the people in the warehouse to look into operational issues. RELATIONS addresses these challenges by centralising data and fostering collaboration. This ensures that information regarding supplier performance in its sustainability is readily available and can be reviewed.

It can track key metrics like inventory levels and logistics efficiency: not only improving decision-making but also promoting accountability and proactive management of issues in supplier relationships.

This transparency enhances operational efficiency, reduces risks and supports strategic decision-making that drives overall supply chain success.

Tracking suppliers

Through RELATIONS tools, companies can keep a close eye on suppliers, where this transparency and accountability encourages continuous improvement and reliability. LeanLinking’s platform emphasises consolidating both hard and soft performance data into a cohesive solution that enhances supplier management. Hard data metrics such as On-Time-In-Full (OTIF), parts per million defects, delivery times and non-conformance are pivotal for evaluating supplier reliability and quality consistency. These metrics are crucial because they directly impact operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

Soft feedback mechanisms, including surveys and reviews, offer qualitative insights into supplier relationships and performance from the customer's viewpoint. This feedback loop is instrumental in fostering continuous improvement and strengthening collaboration between buyers and suppliers.

Through RELATIONS, transparency supports proactive supplier management through its data-sharing ability between suppliers, triggering notifications for non-conformances. This ensures swift issue resolution and accountability within the supplier organisation. Such transparency and accountability are essential because they encourage suppliers to uphold commitments and continuously enhance their performance.

Lars explains: “RELATIONS supports proactive supplier management by enabling informed decision-making and promoting a culture of mutual improvement and success. This integrated approach allows procurement professionals to effectively monitor supplier performance, mitigate risks and achieve better business outcomes through reliable partnerships and ongoing optimisation efforts.”

Staying informed with data

RELATIONS' data analytics tools provide timely and actionable insights, enabling effective issue management by directing relevant data to the right stakeholders.

“For example, if delivery personnel report faults from a particular supplier, the tools consolidate these reports to highlight trends and potential performance issues. This proactive approach allows procurement teams to address emerging issues promptly, minimising disruptions and maintaining efficiency.

By capturing and analysing comprehensive data on supplier performance, RELATIONS helps procurement teams gain visibility into critical supply chain aspects. This visibility aids in identifying areas for improvement, negotiating effectively with suppliers and enhancing overall procurement effectiveness.

 “RELATIONS’ data analytics tools play a pivotal role in enabling procurement teams to proactively manage supplier relationships, mitigate risks and drive continuous improvement,” Lars adds.

“By leveraging real-time data insights, teams can respond swiftly to challenges and capitalise on opportunities, ensuring sustainable supply chain performance and operational excellence.”

LeanLinking’s vision for the future

LeanLinking envisions a future for procurement that is driven by innovation, collaboration and data-driven decision-making. The platform aims to continually evolve to meet the dynamic needs of procurement professionals and support them in achieving operational excellence.

Nicolai Schou Jensen, CEO, says that LeanLinking plans to enhance its capabilities in data analytics and predictive insights. 

“By leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the platform seeks to provide proactive recommendations and predictive analytics that enable procurement teams to anticipate challenges and optimise strategies in all departments, such as sustainability and ESG.”

Furthermore, LeanLinking is committed to expanding its ecosystem of suppliers and stakeholders, fostering deeper collaboration and transparency across the supply chain. This collaborative approach not only strengthens supplier relationships but also enables procurement professionals to leverage collective intelligence for better decision-making and risk management.

LeanLinking will also continue to invest in user-friendly interfaces and intuitive features that empower procurement professionals to easily navigate and utilise the platform's full potential. Training and education initiatives will also continually be prioritised to ensure that users can effectively harness LeanLinking's capabilities to drive measurable improvements in procurement processes and outcomes.

Nicolai concludes: “The future of procurement revolves around empowering professionals with cutting-edge tools, actionable insights and collaborative frameworks that drive sustainable growth, innovation and operational excellence across global supply chains.”

To read the full story in the magazine click HERE

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