Sustainable Solutions for SCM

The structure describes the framework within which the content has to be filled in. The structure is also the basis for the evaluation of the focal function or process. The main elements that have to be detailed are: • Maturity level definition: this means two things, naming the levels and defining the logic behind increasing maturity. As names of the levels can be used “Foundation”, “Established”, “Leading”, “Excellence”, “Lagging”, ”Achieving”, Exceeding”, “Leading” or any other naming systematic that has a scaling that can define different maturity levels. It is interesting how the highest maturity level is defined (static definition of benchmark KPIs versus a self-improving process) and what strategic implications this has. • Questionnaire type: The design of a questionnaire is not only related to the development of maturitymodels. One has to specify which sort of questions to use (open, closed, etc.), which kind of answering possibilities to provide (Likert scale, formulated answers, etc.) and what medium to use (online survey, interviews, etc.). The main focus should lie on getting precise and reliable information from the assessed persons and organisational units. For an internal model, a self- assessment by using questionnaires or interviews for a deeper understanding of the procurement processes and the use of tools could be appropriate media. • Scoring logic: Once the answers are collected, the next question would be how to rate them and where to draw the lines between grades, i.e. maturity levels. A broad variety of scoring schemes are used in real life practice. Siemens for example gives 20 points for maximum maturity, 5 for each of the four levels. The system at Robert Bosch works with two different ratings, one for concept and one for execution, each of which giving 1 point per met criterion and the results are multiplied and weighted at the end. • Evaluation logic: The weighting logic (some criteria can be more important than others) is part of the evaluation logic, which also defines for which criteria scores are aggregated. It could, for example, be defined that there are criteria where no points can be achieved, without fulfilling another criterion first. This implies that only units that fulfil a certain base-level in every category are eligible to score well and thus an incentive to achieve a minimum alignment with the strategic procurement guidelines. • Variability: This means, if and if yes which adaptations of certain elements (structure or content) in the model are allowed. In addition to the above discussed criteria, it is possible to generate different kinds of criteria sets for different units due to their field of activity (operational vs. strategic, series production vs. project business, products vs. services etc.). • Goal setting: At the beginning of an assessment a goal has to be defined. This goal may also be the reason why the assessment is conducted in the first place, and it should be based on some sort of underlying data, such as developments in the business environment, which must also be defined. The second part of goal setting comes after the initial assessment is done and before possible improvement measures are determined. The stakeholders

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