resilience; that’s what executive committees now worry about. They’re focused on keeping operations running and continuing to provide a service to customers, not a 2-3% saving. “Cost will always be important, because it’s important to our customers, but there is now much more focus on finding the right organisations who will continue to supply to you when the market is tight. You’re unlikely to be at the front of that queue if you’re running a transactional, parent/child relationship with key suppliers.” Improvement journey Wylie says improving supplier engagement is still a work in progress but much work has already been done, with more plans underway. State of Flux helped Wylie design the initial programme and segmentation process. It is now being consulted about how Thames can roll the programme out beyond its top suppliers and use technology to improve efficiency.
A key development since Wylie joined has been the introduction of a supplier summit. Thames Water recently hosted the second of these annual events at which it presented its plans both in person and remotely to every supplier that wished to hear them. This was attended by Thames’ CEO, CFO and operational MDs. “We trying to be transparent, open and inclusive with our supply chain,” says Wylie. “We had about 100 people in the room with us, but any supplier of any size could join the hybrid call where we walked everyone through our strategy.” That presentation has already resulted in a very small company that listened in suggesting an idea on energy efficiency that Thames Water plans to trial. It was also at that event that the business launched its, now annual, supplier awards ceremony which is hosted by Wylie and Bentley.
“It is a great opportunity to say thanks; recognise those who have gone above and beyond and share some great stories about the work that’s been done,” says Wylie. “If you don’t take the time to do this, the danger is it all becomes about the ‘what went wrongs?’. This celebrates the ‘what went rights’. It is also a chance to show our appreciation - a ‘thank you’ goes a long way and is something we all like to hear.” Wylie says Thames Water is fortunate to have strong executive buy-in that supports all these endeavours. “Our CEO really believes in the strength of supplier relationships. They are part of what she calls ‘Team Thames’, which includes anybody who is supporting a customer. That’s the ethos we’re trying to get to.”
“We’re not going to be able to deliver everything we need to if we don’t bring suppliers with us”
has totally moved on from every telephone conversation with a supplier focusing on ‘how much will this save me?’.” Like other procurement teams, Thames Water has had to focus on mitigating and managing the impact of Brexit, Covid, war in the Ukraine, shipping delays and inflation – particularly for fuel and the container market. Specifically, it has come up against a global supply chain challenge to source the semi- conductors needed to make smart meter devices that help users to reduce their water usage and cut costs. Many of the chemicals critical in water production and waste water cleaning are generated as a by-product of manufacturing processes, such as steel production. As this activity fell away during the pandemic, so too did access to this vital supply. Thames Water also buys a lot of liquid oxygen to oxygenate water. When demand surged in health services to help Covid patients, Thames Water worked with its supplier to move its own deliveries out of hours to enable it to prioritise hospitals. Wylie says good, open relationships with its chemicals providers meant it had early warning of manufacturing issues; and it is working closely with semi-conductor producers and examining alternative sources of supply. “It’s the most challenging sourcing environment I’ve seen in my 25-year career. It’s all about
However, he recognises that the organisation hasn’t always harnessed those ideas – something a lot of large companies struggle with. It is now making adjustments to make it easier for smaller organisations to access Thames Water. “Big companies tend to be great at dealing with other big companies but we artificially build barriers to smaller companies. We’re trying to strip a lot of that away to work out how smaller, fleet-of-foot organisations can deal with us because some of the most innovative ideas come from these businesses. “Part of our shift to our new commercial model is about having smart commercial people in the business who can help suppliers navigate our organisation. We want to ensure we’re having the right conversations with them that might be able to super-charge some of the journey we’re on.” Critical challenges Wylie is clear that the business case for supplier management has fundamentally changed over the past two years. “The conversation
OPINION SNAPSHOT: “You’re unlikely to be at the front of the queue for supply if you have a transactional, parent/child relationship with providers”
David Wylie, Director of Commercial and Procurement
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