Supplier Management in a nuclear power plant

Behind the scenes: When safety comes first

The Leibstadt nuclear power plant (KKL) is located on the Swiss bank of the Rhine: here on the border with Germany, it has been producing around one sixth of the electricity consumed in Switzerland for over 30 years - for more than two million households every day. In all operational processes, safety at the nuclear power plant comes first. This also applies when dealing with highly specialized suppliers: With Simmeth System, Supplier Management has been placed on a new platform.

Of the five Swiss nuclear power plants Leibstadt is the most powerful. More than 500 employees, most of them from Switzerland and Germany, are employed here. The KKL commissions suppliers from all over the world. The demands on the cooperation are high: "Any external service, whether material or service, can influence the safety and availability of the system. "Therefore, it is a core task to constantly optimize partnerships with suppliers and to maintain them for many years", emphasizes Andreas Ketterer, Purchasing Manager of Leibstadt AG.

Together with the software specialists of the German Simmeth System GmbH, the Swiss installed a comprehensive supplier management. The system captures all of the company's activities in dealing with its suppliers - from selection and qualification through assessment and classification to supplier development. The tools create new interfaces in the flow of information and structure the exchange between purchasing, departments and suppliers.

"Without dialogue and feedback, cooperation with our suppliers would not be possible" explains Ketterer. Therefore, the classic dialogue building blocks have been practiced for years. With Simmeth, the nuclear power plant is creating new technical structures. The combination of modern web technology with flexible software architecture makes the processes faster and the assessments more precise.

"Where others reach their limits, we develop individual solutions together with our customers. Our software modules are tailored precisely to the needs, so we achieve a real optimization, "explains Markus Simmeth. Simmeth System GmbH is playing a pioneering role with its supplier management throughout the entire German-speaking area.

"We benefit from an analysis that allows us to condense valuations, to better assess and develop suppliers, and to inform ourselves even more quickly and in greater detail," summarizes purchasing manager Andreas Ketterer.