Supplier Management at Messe München with Simmeth System

With more than 50 own trade fairs for capital goods, consumer goods and new technologies in Munich and abroad, Messe München is one of the world's leading trade fair companies. Messe München is currently organizing 10 leading international trade fairs, including the world's largest trade fair, the bauma.

In 2011, Messe München launched the "SPEED Project Procurement Optimization". The aim was to optimize strategic and operative purchasing in order to increase the efficiency of the central purchasing of Messe München. In the first step, an important component of this project was the introduction of a system-supported supplier evaluation, which is then embedded in a central, uniform and comprehensive supplier management system. With the software solution SC-Manager from Simmeth System these project modules could be inserted perfectly.

The core of the project is a central database as an information base, which is synchronized with the vendor master data as well as all purchase order and invoice data of the ERP system. Certificates,  contracts and all other documents relating to the suppliers are also stored in the database and managed centrally. Among other things, the system calculates contract expiration times and automatically informs the purchasing department by email about the respective dates. Important key figures such as order and invoice volumes are determined concurrently and are available to purchasers with practical analysis functions and deviation notifications.

The core data of the ERP system is supplemented by extensive additional information such as risk indicators and supplier self-assessments. The self-information is obtained via a workflow by email from the supplier and renewed regularly.

Potential suppliers who are not yet in the vendor master of the ERP system can also be registered and prequalified and are available for purchasing in the central supplier management.

With the help of the supplier evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the suppliers are collected regularly and standardized via web-based questionnaires, which are automatically distributed by mail to the departments. The results are calculated transparently via a scorecard and are always available to purchasers in supplier management for detailed analysis and supplier discussions.

"With the Simmeth System software, our purchasing department now has well-defined, coordinated and documented supplier management. An important component of our project "SPEED Project Procurement Optimization" was successfully integrated, "says Peter Melber, Head of Central Purchasing at Messe München, evaluating the successful project.

With Simmeth System's supplier management, the central purchasing department of Messe München has both a central tool for strategic purchasing and a tool for day-to-day business in operational purchasing. Processes such as regular supplier self-assessments are now system-based in controlled workflows. Distributed subsystems could be abolished and integrated into the central database solution.

"Due to the transparency and clarity of the supplier management system, master data quality alone has increased by 80 percent in just a short time," notes Katharina Dedler, Head of Strategic Procurement Management at Messe München.

"The supplier evaluation with its clearly arranged web questionnaires is easy to implement and enjoys a high level of acceptance," adds Isabelle Heckmann-Zimmermann, Strategic Buyer at Messe München. "Thus, in the third year of evaluation since the system was introduced, more than 152 suppliers were evaluated using more than 566 questionnaires sent. We now have an excellent database as a starting point for supplier talks and systematic supplier development. "