When I became responsible for all purchases in
Latin America I found, together with the Security, Health and Environment
areas, that in the Logistics area we had services being provided by 180
different off-site contractors in our region (Latin America), which resulted
in high contracting, health and environmental auditing, and control costs.
Since at the time our suppliers numbered 180, we
set out to, together with the Security, Health and Environment, and
Operational Logistics areas, develop a strategy to jointly reevaluate
all logistics suppliers in our region, and reduce them by 30% in a maximum
timeframe of two years (since these suppliers were spread over 11 countries in
Latin America).
After carrying out this joint work with the
Purchasing, Security, Health and Environment, and Operational Logistics areas we
were able to reduce by 60% the number of off-site contractors, which
resulted in an annual savings of US$15,000,000. The number of contracted
suppliers for the Latin American region went from 180 to 80, which decreased
processing, administrative, financial and contracting costs.