BAE Systems expands deployment of i2 SRM

Citation

(2004), "BAE Systems expands deployment of i2 SRM", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 76 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2004.12776dab.010

BAE Systems expands deployment of i2 SRM

BAE Systems expands deployment of i2 SRM

i2 Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end supply chain management solutions, and aerospace and defence systems giant BAE Systems recently announced that BAE Systems has expanded its deployment of i2 supplier relationship management (SRM) solutions to additional sites in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom. To date, more than 75 BAE Systems sites have deployed i2 SRM to aggregate and analyse almost $8 billion in spend.

An i2 SRM customer since 1997, BAE Systems has been able to use the Strategic Sourcing tools to help consolidate its supplier base and reduce its cost of goods sold through improved overall spend visibility across more than 45 transaction systems. By using i2 SRM to establish and execute global sourcing strategies based on procurement and sourcing needs across the entire corporation, rather than the needs of individual business or geographical units, BAE Systems can better determine optimal sourcing strategies for each commodity and supplier.

The expansion of the SRM solutions across the company allows BAE Systems to quickly get global visibility of its expenditures which helps maximise buying leverage throughout its operations. BAE Systems is also using the i2 solutions to track spend by country, which is becoming increasingly important for regulatory reasons.

“An advantage of i2 SRM is that it can aggregate spend and supplier data from many different transaction systems,” noted Mark Fleming, i2 client manager. “This is designed to make it easier for BAE Systems to add new subsidiaries or business units to the system. This has been especially important to BAE Systems, which has undergone several mergers and acquisitions over the past decade.”

“To stay competitive in our complex industry, we need to be able to manage sourcing and procurement in the most efficient way possible. Data Management is at the heart of this,” commented James Donlevy, business manager at BAE Systems. “i2's software is helping us evaluate our spend more effectively, which leads to a more robust sourcing strategy, a right-sizing of our supplier base and a reduction of our overall material costs. We are happy with the value that our current i2 SRM implementation has provided, which is why we have chosen to expand the program.”

BAE Systems has also been a customer of i2 component and supplier management (CSM) since 1994. i2 CSM is used to manage approved parts, aligning procurement and product development with corporate objectives. In addition, i2 CSM supplies BAE Systems' product engineers with a wealth of searchable information on approximately 12 million parts to assist them in selecting those to be included in new products based on both technical and business criteria.

BAE Systems has also taken advantage of i2 MOST to manage and operate its implementations of i2 SRM with a goal of ensuring sustained value delivery. i2 MOST – which stands for manage, operate, sustain and transform – is designed to allow customers to better manage and operate i2 solutions through rapid on-site response and resolution to application issues, minimising risk of downtime and reducing interrupted business operations.