Case study - Efficient procurement of PLM & LIMS for product development
A renowned German automotive manufacturer successfully procured PLM and LIMS systems to enhance product development within just six months. Through meticulous planning, stakeholder involvement, and rigorous bid evaluation, the project stayed on budget and prepared for final negotiations, ensuring alignment with the company's technical and legal standards.
- Industry
- Automotive Industry
- Roles
- Project Manager for the procurement of PLM and LIMS systems, IT Procurement Manager
- Services
- Procurement management, bid evaluation, stakeholder management, contract negotiations, time and budget management
Objective
This project focused on the procurement of a PLM and a LIMS to support product development.
Challenges
Although the essential requirements for the procurement were clarified in a preliminary project, the challenge was to ensure efficient implementation within the given timeframe. The procurement budget was estimated at 30 million euros over a period of 5 years.
Execution
A staged approach consisting of an RFI and an RFP was chosen for provider selection. Trainings for potential vendors were conducted to ensure they understood our requirements and the procurement process. As the initial bids arrived, we began the evaluation and preparation for negotiations. Special attention was given to involving all relevant stakeholders, including users, internal IT departments, the legal department, procurement, and architecture. Trainings were conducted for all internal participants to ensure a targeted approach in dealing with vendors. The received bids were evaluated, and several walkthrough sessions were held to ensure that the quality of the bids from all vendors was brought to a comparable level.
Outcome
In the end, we had three bids that met the company's technical and legal requirements and were fully prepared for final commercial negotiations by procurement.