Autor: Andreas H. Glas

Supply management provides an organization with the resources that it needs but does not produce itself. However, intraorganizational needs are not isolated. They ultimately serve to fulfill the demands of external (end) customers. Traditionally, supply management receives information from its internal customers, i.e. from other functional areas such as production planning, logistics, or marketing. Information on (end) customer demands reaches supply management, if at all, indirectly via these other functional areas, which often pass on information after interpreting it. This article discusses how digital twins of (end) customer demands can provide all functional areas with precise, near-real-time data.

Procurement has the task to supply an organization with required but not self-produced goods. The goods vs. payment exchange with suppliers is laid down in contracts. “Electronic contracts" or “Smart Contracts” represent the logic digitally and thus enhance transparency. This can still evolve. In the future, improved algorithms and artificial intelligence will not only be able to administer contracts, but also to design them. This article presents the status quo of "Smart Contracting", places it in the "Legal Tech" topic and shows how artificial intelligence could be used in procurement.

Procurement has the task of providing an organization with required but not self-produced goods. Due to the collapse of global supply chains during the SARS-COV2 pandemic, procurement faced major challenges. Goods that were actually easily available on global markets became critical bottlenecks. It turned out that additive manufacturing can mitigate these bottlenecks. For example, medical spare parts were produced using additive manufacturing. This article examines how additive manufacturing is changing the procurement risk of materials. A comparison is made between traditional and additive supply possibilities based on a survey. The result is a combined procurement strategy, which ensures an improved availability of critical goods.

Managers across the globe discuss the impact of digitalization on their business models. Among many other functions, procurement is strongly impacted by this development. However, “Procurement 4.0” goes far beyond the increased use of IT systems. It also has an impact on strategic dimensions such as supplier relationships. Data in this context will have a more important, if not critical, role- whether as some sort of “currency” in negotiations or as the basis for many procurement decisions, from operative order processing to supplier selection.