Marine procurement processes that are manual have budget overruns and unproductive or inefficient workflows. Information is not easily available, and the approval process is time-consuming, which reduces the efficacy of the procurement process itself.
Procurement in the marine industry is more complex and difficult to manage with factors like global sources at widely differing prices, time constraints due to continuously moving fleet, concomitant risks, difficulties of taking advantage of economies of scale, and more. Constant effort in monitoring and assessment of machinery, equipment, and spare parts, and missed deliveries, wrong consignments ensures the prevention of over-ordering and running out of stock. An important step to eradicate this problem would be to automate the procurement and store management process of a fleet. The problem is compounded by differing prices and exchange rates; where comparison of prices across vendors is time-consuming. Add to it, the vagaries posed by poor performing vendors and difficulties in getting proper vendor evaluation. Manually it is quite cumbersome to split or combine requisitions and ensure deliveries are made correctly to the appropriate vessels.
Automate the Process
With stores and procurement software, fleet managers can streamline the procurement process from on-board requisitions, sending RFQs, evaluating quotations from suppliers, approvals to payment with ease. The software helps the fleet manager make informed decisions and avoid excessive inventory, long lead times, shortage of critical time, equipment downtime, etc.
One of the biggest issues is the lack of integration between the supplier and buyer systems that further complicates the problem. Some of the other issues identified were inaccurate and siloed data, lack of analytical tools, and poor connectivity with the vessels. Companies need to fix their legacy problems and optimize their systems to reduce inefficiencies in operations.
In the maritime supply chain, a huge workforce is needed for manual email or document transactions between suppliers and procurement departments. Exchange of spreadsheets, PDFs, printing, uploading of documents is time-consuming and inefficient. With procurement software, suppliers and procurers can use a single interface to send and receive orders and requisitions. Office automation functionalities within the product dramatically reduce the tasks to be manually managed by the admin which in turn increases productivity.
Some of the other features include the suppliers’ list, tracking of delivery from the warehouse to the vessels, budgeting tool, and much more.
The budgeting tool within the Procurement software allows purchasers to have various budget heads/cost centers, be cognizant of the available balance within the cost center, and place orders accordingly. In case a purchase order needs to be placed and the necessary balance within the cost center is not available, appropriate approval cycles can be triggered. On receiving the necessary approval, the purchaser can place the purchase order.
Procurement software can completely transform your business, reduce the processing times, and increase operational efficiency. Contact us to know more about procurement and store management software.
