PURCHASING
Analysis takes three dime
odayʼs highly technical world is
very vulnerable to natural disas-
ters. According to the reinsurer Munich
Re, natural disasters resulted in eco-
nomic losses totalling roughly 380 bil-
lion dollars in 2011. The large number
of natural disasters and unpredictable
events last year forced the SCHERDEL
Group
to look closely at the topic of risk
management in the supply chain.
SCHERDEL decided to focus on three
dimensions for risk analysis of the sup-
ply chain: quality, price and supply. Of
the three, the quality risk is the easiest
to quantify. Due to the ISO TS 16949-
based quality management system,
strict product quality checks are imple-
mented for raw materials and prelimi-
nary products and our suppliers are
subjected to regular assessments in or-
der to monitor, among other things,
their product quality. The acquired
knowledge is used by the Group for the
ongoing development of suppliers and
to provide the necessary support to op-
timise their product quality.
The raw materials and preliminary
products employed by SCHERDEL are,
in contrast to the much talked about
rare earth resources, still available in
sufficient quantities around the world.
Nonetheless, the Group still has to deal
with the effects of increasing volatility in
the commodity markets. The rapidly
growing trade with commodity-based fi-
nancial products and the related specu-
lation have an even greater impact. To-
day, the balancing act between cus-
tomer expectations and price hedging
opportunities in the procurement mar-
kets is not always straightforward, as
monthly or at least quarterly price ad-
justments have become the norm. The
only way to reduce price risks effective-
ly is through continued intensive con-
sultation with every single customer in
conjunction with the available instru-
ments (natural und financial hedging,
price indexing, quantity contracts, etc.).
The subject of ʻsupply and availabilityʼ
is of vital importance in the automotive
supply chain. The supply risk proves to
be the most difficult aspect to deter-
mine and assess. Generally speaking,
supply risks can be divided into three
groups: smaller supply disruptions
which are usually the result of a high
T
Risk management at SCHERDEL covers the entire
12
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING –
MANAGEMENT
–
TECHNOLOGY & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – NEWS AND INFORMATION
The final quality of SCHERDEL
products is also influenced by the
quality of the raw material and re-
spective pre-treatment. The picture
shows oil-tempered wire coil.
The graph displays the integral im-
portance of risk management in
the various areas of procurement
activity.
