All posts by Eszter Dean

COO at Elcowire

Former Head of Global Sourcing Operations at Alfa Laval Corporation. Modern thought leader, enthusiast developer and active lean thinker.
Interview

Help me help you!

Eszter Dean has a strong background as a supply chain leader in the Alfa Laval Corporation. Today she is acting as COO at Elcowire – a leading supplier of copper wire rod, wires, stranded conductors, profiles and overhead catenary systems in aluminium and copper alloys. We had a privilege to have a short interview with her concentrating on the supplier experience.

How the practices of supplier collaboration have evolved during the latest 10 years?

I’m sure it’s different from company to company but I have worked for a rather large company the past 10 years and there has been a remarkable change in supplier collaboration. 10 years ago a large company pretty much told the supplier what the demands were and the supplier either said “yes customer” or they were replaced. On occasions, some suppliers even got into financial problems due to having agreed to terms that simply weren’t sustainable for them.

In my view, two major changes have happened throughout these years. One is that the requirements we have on suppliers have gone from being 99 % price and 1 % other requirements to looking at total cost instead of price and other requirements like compliance to environmental demands, social responsibilities have taken place more and more in choice of supplier.

The other major difference is that companies tend to collaborate more with supplier, meaning that instead of just choosing a new supplier if an already established supplier have difficulties meeting new requirements, companies are keener on trying to solve the issues in collaboration, helping out the current supplier. Another side of the collaboration is that more and more companies use supplier collaboration for innovation to stay ahead or get ahead of the competition.

Which are the main elements of a good supplier experience?

I would say its transparency, i.e. seeing the relevant information as soon as it happens / appears and also simplicity. It must be clear what the situations is and what’s expected and easy to respond.

Explain the importance of good supplier experience from the customer’s perspective.

Essentially the goal of a customer is to get the correct goods / services as agreed on the timing, quality and price. A good supplier experience gives a better opportunity for suppliers to satisfy customer needs. I think of the famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire: “Help me help you!”

In general, in what areas procurement professional should concentrate to gain the supplier experience in the future?

In my opinion, it’s being able to share relevant data and information in real-time and making sure to have open communication channels both ways if and when needed.

Read more about why every Executive should care about the Supplier Experience!

Video interview

Improve your people, processes and systems

Video

Eszter Dean is leading the Global Sourcing Office at Alfa Laval Corporation. Listen to her views of the three dimensions which needs to be developed in the supply chain at the same time and what she is looking for from the digital landscape.

“There are three main things that you need to have, and you need to have them sort of in the same phase. If you really want to improve and really take a leap, you have to have people who are willing to do the change. You need also supporting processes because people need to know how they should get there. And the third dimension is systems which supports both people and processes. If you lack any of these three dimensions it won’t work. You might improve, but not to the point you want to be, you won’t reach the leap. And I don’t think it will be a big bang, I’m convinced it’s an iterative process.”

“There is a huge variety of different solutions in the digital landscape. What I’m looking for is a solution which makes data transparent and that will lead collaboration easier and more seamless, and not so people depended. Of course, we still need the people, but I’m seeing is that if somebody is on vacation or sick leave then some things just stop, because there is an email sitting in someone’s mailbox. If we can get away from that because we have some sort of shared platform it will solve a lot of issues. If we can find platforms that make it simple and easy to find data and securing it’s always the latest update that is available, that will solve a whole number of issues for us in the supply chain. And especially if we can expand that from our company towards suppliers and customers, that will be a huge leap.”

“I have realized that no-one is perfect, no company is perfect, we have our challenges, we have our gaps, but learning from others, where they are doing something in a smarter way, is very giving. To learn from supply chain peers is very valuable”, concludes Eszter Dean.

Video interview

The importance of transparency in the supply chain

Video

Eszter Dean, Sourcing Office Manager is leading global sourcing at Alfa Laval Corporation. She is a  thought leader and enthusiast developer in managing the supply chain in a modern way.

When I’m looking at the procurement and sourcing, nowadays the most important thing is the transparency and correct data – both within the organization and throughout the whole supply chain. People need to know what’s going on and the accurate information should be available whenever they need it.

In the very near future, we have to start working in a different way. Today the supplier-buyer-relationship is more or less subordinate – buyer tells the supplier what to do. I see it must be much more collaborative in the future because that’s the way to innovation. Watch the video for more insights about Supply Chain Transparency.