With 18,000 Australian employees in all mainland states and across multiple important industries including coal, copper, nickel, zinc, cotton and seed farming, this large commodities producer has licensed Refresh for SAP to identify and take ownership of key supply chain data.
The company had also grown through recent acquisitions, bringing multiple systems and processes together for the first time. This complexity combined with a dip in the commodity cycle means that now is the time to urgently implement purchasing, tax and maintenance standards to safeguard profit and reduce working capital used. In this tough economy, it will be the lean and clean large commodity producers that are able to maintain profitability at lower price points for longer.
Key in selecting Refresh was the software's automated classification algorithms and workflows which will be used to get (and keep) all current and future items classified to UNSPSC, ISO, and in-house standards. They will also de-duplicate purchased items at source and consistently describe all material and services, unlocking those hard-dollar savings in spend rationalization and lean stock level optimization. This will decrease the cost of goods sold and working capital from the start.