INTERVIEW / HITACHI RAIL GROUP CPO RORY LAMONT
PEOPLE / ADVERT
runs face-to-face meetings for its top 50 providers to discuss performance on both sides. It also holds well-established ‘corporate partner days’ attended by the CEO and business leads and hosts a webcast to let suppliers know of future plans.
The company pioneered ‘bullet trains’ with the first Shinkansen Series 0 delivered in 1964 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics. Its fastest bullet train now achieves speeds of up to 320km per hour.
Fast and slow
Reshape your ways of working
Speed is of the essence when it comes to assessing and mitigating potential risks, such as those presented by Covid-19. “You need to be really clear on what conversations you need to have about any project milestones that are at risk and ask suppliers to communicate with you immediately if anything moves,” he advises. Lamont says one thing that can be done quickly is an assessment of the quality of account team managing you on the supplier’s side. “If, for example, you have a global account team contact, conversations and actions can move pretty swiftly, but if an organisation is less mature, you may need to speak to a regional contact in the first instance, which can take more time.” And when it comes to challenges with speed, the “stuff that takes a lifetime” he says, is getting hold of holistic and reliable information with which to have data-driven conversations with suppliers. “We’re working very closely with the supplier quality management and product quality team to improve the regular flow of data from warehouses to procurement and a case has been made for a system to do that.” One advantage Lamont has operating in a company where strong supplier relationships are universally valued, is he is able to lean on the wider organisation when his team is stretched. “If you’re drowning in work, don’t be afraid to use the full width of your organisation,” he suggests, “not everything has to be dealt with by procurement.” Strong communication is essential both outside and inside the business. “My one piece of advice?” he says, “SRM handbooks worry me. There’s no point pursuing an SRM programme if you’re not clear what your organisation is trying to achieve. “Rather than acting as the guardian of an SRM programme, spend more time talking to the business about what’s important to them. Line-up with sales and engineering, work out what’s key and get behind it.” Lamont has a small team embedded with the commercial department to ensure procurement is involved in the sales pipeline and has early insight into needs and developments. For example, he says the fuel cell agreement signed in July came from a specific conversation a year before. “If you listen, the business will tell you what’s important, then you know what you have to focus on.”
me we’re much more human – we listen better than others. That’s an image we want to portray and live.” Those messages – both public and private – led to a number of conversations that generated improvements for suppliers, everything from simple clarifications to cash-flow assistance. “Paying on time can be the difference between a supplier going under or lasting another eight weeks, so we’ve done a lot of work on our payment performance,” says Lamont. In addition, category managers track 250-300 suppliers on a weekly basis to check their health and status as businesses continue to be hit by the pandemic. Help is both given and received. The respect, or ‘wa’, shown to suppliers pays off in kind. Lamont highlights a recent instance when a problem was discovered in the windscreens of trains set to run on Scotland’s Edinburgh-Glasgow route. “We had some challenges with how they performed in certain light conditions, so we went back to the supplier to get the defects looked at. We had project and category managers working on it until it bubbled up to my level and I received a call from the supplier’s business unit lead in Japan.” The two of them discussed what was required and Lamont was impressed at how well versed the unit lead was. Hitachi has had a relationship with the supplier for 50-60 years, so it was committed to ensuring the issue was resolved. Despite the long-term connection, Lamont says he was pleasantly surprised at just how well the supplier handled the problem since he knew the amount of windows being scrapped would be causing production and financial problems. “I was expecting to get a call from someone at a senior level to explain this to me and find a way to minimise it. “Instead, the calls were focused on making sure we got what we needed and as quickly as possible. It’s usually me that makes those calls. I don’t think it’s ever happened the other way around where a supplier has called me to ensure they were doing everything they could to make it succeed.” Strong relationships require two-way communication and Hitachi Rail
With the cultural shift in communication and ways of working initiated by the pandemic, the State of Flux supplier relationship management learning and certification programme can help you develop your team, stakeholders and suppliers’ capabilities. Our training programme is now available online. Our market leading and modular training curriculum is accredited by World Commerce & Contracting (formerly IACCM) at “Advanced Practitioner” level.
enquiries@stateofflux.co.uk srm.stateofflux.co.uk/2020-report
52 STATE OF FLUX
2020 GLOBAL SRM RESEARCH REPORT
53
Powered by FlippingBook