The company realized its international sourcing and supply chain processes relied too heavily on manually intensive processes and required a transformation. The development of products and managing the product lifecycle was increasingly complex and compounded by the variety of fabrics required, costly leather, and multiple types of embellishments. Inefficient processes and a tremendous number of duplicate efforts resulted from a large number of sourcing and supply chain partners, diverse geographic locations, and required masses of information exchanged. The retailer recognized the need to manage internal and external supply chain processes better and facilitate information access with strategic trading partners, especially raw material suppliers. Additionally, product development complexity was intensifying. The company wanted to simplify and standardize its data management processes associated with materials management, bill of materials (BOM), costing collaboration, and supplier allocation. For example, global suppliers were required to log into multiple systems to obtain documents and information on procedures, training manuals, certifications, and other general communications. Visibility was another challenge because design groups had no insight into the available materials for future order allocation. The company relied on various manual-based methods to manage processes with trading partners, including Excel spreadsheets, email, text, regular mail, and phone.

Crane Worldwide faced multiple challenges with their existing logistics and supply chain systems. These systems were cumbersome, disjointed, and error-prone, leading to inefficiencies and high costs. The lack of visibility across global partners and the inability to respond quickly to changing business dynamics further complicated their operations. Crane needed to streamline their processes, improve visibility, and connect disjointed legacy systems to create a more efficient transportation management system.

Revman International, a leading supplier of high-end bedding and bath products, faced significant challenges with its existing warehouse management system. The system lacked the stability and scalability required to meet the company's growing customer demands. Customization issues and a lack of support from the previous system provider made upgrading impossible. This instability threatened Revman's reputation for premium customer service, prompting the company to seek a more reliable and efficient warehouse management solution.

With an overseas manufacturing base, rising volumes, increasing number of suppliers, and growing demands from retailers for high levels of service and guaranteed lead times, HoMedics faced escalating challenges and an increasingly complex supply chain. HoMedics had no way to generate UCC128 labels for its overseas manufacturers, lacked ASN capability, and could not generate labels in-house in compliance with the Top 100 Retailers initiative. In the UK, Salter had no way to share shipping information with its trading partners and struggled to gain visibility to the inbound flow of goods from China.

Ingram Book Group faced a complex network of inventory, consumers, distribution channels, and facility coordination, creating unique supply chain challenges. The company aimed to increase supply chain efficiency, reduce distribution costs, and enhance speed and efficiency in serving its customers. The challenge was to manage a vast inventory of 1.4 million titles across four distribution centers, with order sizes varying dramatically. The goal was to streamline operations and improve customer service without disrupting ongoing processes.

Despite tremendous growth in catalog products, Harvard Drugs’ buyers were still using Excel spreadsheets to manage inventory across the company’s four warehouses. Silos across the organization created additional inefficiencies. By early 2011, new CEO Terry Haas led a three-month evaluation of processes throughout the enterprise. Hass brought in Kerry Porter in May of 2011 to enable a new vision for Harvard Drug. The turn on inventory was identified as a critical issue, and the company was more of a 'sourcing' organization than a replenishment organization.

Faced with a ballooning administrative workload, combined with the refusal to compromise his company’s strict safety standards, a Senior Safety Construction Specialist in North Chicago had a decision to make: hire more staff and absorb the cost of salary, health care insurance, and training—or look for a more efficient and cost-effective approach to de-risking his supply chain. His company, a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company with a workforce of 28,000, has set a strict internal safety initiative referred to as “Global Technical Standards.” It’s the job of this Senior Safety Construction Specialist to make sure contractors at his facility are properly trained, certified, and reviewed, according to OSHA standards. But with several hundred contractors working at his site alone, managing them all and meeting company goals had become too much work for one person. The problem wasn’t just the amount of time required to execute the reviews. Internal staff had no automated way of knowing who was due for review, whose review was late, or who hadn’t been reviewed yet. There was no trigger in place that would tell them when contractors were up for review. The company did have an electronic database of information for contractors, but it did not provide detailed information, such as certifications or training—not even an indication of whether the contractor was qualified to perform work onsite. With overflowing file cabinets, an increasingly complex supply chain, and the ever-present concern over contractor risk, something needed to change.

When a company the size of LafargeHolcim makes a serious commitment to sustainability, quality, the environment and to the health and safety of the people who work at its many plants and job sites around the world, there are significant implications to all processes. Policies must be applied throughout the supply chain to manage the way LafargeHolcim purchases goods and services in every unit. The company set ambitious goals for its global operations, including: • Follow a “zero harm to people” principle that prioritizes health and safety and reduces lost-time incidents for employees, contractors, and stakeholders. • Develop innovative and sustainable products to help customers improve the energy efficiency of their buildings and increase materials recycling. In Brazil, LafargeHolcim employs 2,400 employees and 2,300 contractors in its 80 plants around the country. The high number of contract employees makes it very difficult to manually handle prequalification and other evaluation processes. “Before [the merger], we did the whole process of supplier evaluation through e-mails and Excel spreadsheets,” says Cristiane Oliveira, Procurement Specialist for LafargeHolcim in Brazil. This situation inevitably led to increased risk, including a lack of standardization in the way contractors were evaluated. Various people performed the evaluations, which created the opportunity for different criteria to be applied. There was no simple, objective way to measure a supplier’s record on social responsibility, human rights issues (bribery, corruption, child labor, and so on), and other issues related to sustainability,” said Cristiane Oliveira. These factors impacted supplier onboarding and limited visibility into supply chain risk.

For a metropolitan passenger rail network franchise in Australia, managing the supply chain is about more than bringing efficiency to the process or finding ways to save money. Although those goals are certainly important, the company’s primary responsibility is safely carrying the citizens to and from work each day. More than 415,000 passengers use the rail every weekday, and getting them to their destination safely, and on time, is the highest priority. Safety touches all aspects of the organization, including construction and maintenance of every train it operates, every station in the system, and every kilometer of track it lays. Since much of that work is done by contractors and suppliers, the railway leader needs to know that each of them are qualified to perform the work for which they’re hired. It’s important that suppliers deliver the service at a competitive price, but it’s vital that they meet environmental and safety requirements. For this company, supply chain management has enormous implications for passenger safety and service. Nevertheless, qualifying and managing some 3,500 contractors was a massive job that the organization simply wasn’t adequately staffed for. That was the stark conclusion of its Supply Development & Performance Manager when he stepped into a procurement role for the company. While reviewing the procurement process, he discovered that management of the supply chain—including prequalification of contractors and suppliers—wasn’t being performed properly. Responsibility for selecting and introducing new suppliers was largely handled by superintendents in the field. The lack of careful oversight hit a critical point—and came to the attention of the executive staff— in October 2013. That’s when the office of the Federal Safety Commissioner audited one of the organization’s business units—the group responsible for new stations, sections of mainline, and other construction projects. The audit of this group’s contract management process failed across the board, receiving one point out of 100. This was a key catalyst for change within the organization and provided incentive to revamp the way it managed contractors and suppliers. The problem wasn’t simply a lack of oversight. To the degree that the company prequalified and managed its supply chain, the process was simply inefficient. The prequalification process was a basic, manual, and labor-intensive process. It relied on paper records, was handled entirely in-house, and lacked the automation necessary to efficiently manage thousands of third-party workers. Various people across the company spent a good deal of time on this process. And because it was difficult to share information, there was a lot of duplication, both internally and within the supplier community.

It’s safe to say that every enterprise is concerned about maintaining a healthy, safe, and sustainable work environment—for everyone connected to the company. Large businesses rely on their suppliers, vendors and contractors to provide needed materials and perform critical jobs. This is especially true for Range Resources, a leading independent producer of oil and natural gas. According to Bill Burket, EHS Compliance Coordinator at Range Resources, contractors perform 90% of the at-risk work within the industry. Range takes the health and safety of its contractors very seriously and understands the consequences of an accident—for both the contractor and Range as an organization. Safety is of the utmost importance at the jobsite, and the burden of ensuring safety is shared across the enterprise. Companies like Range understand that contractors represent them out in the field, and they see the value of sourcing contractors who have the experience and qualifications to perform a given job. Range works tirelessly to ensure standards are met and regulations are followed—recognizing that health and safety are in everyone’s best interest. Needless to say, qualifying, monitoring, and managing hundreds or thousands of contractors is a complex task—one that few companies are prepared to handle on their own. Range, like many global organizations, uses Avetta to help manage the entire process, from establishing contractor criteria, to tracking performance on the jobsite and taking corrective action in the event of an incident. Before Avetta Prior to partnering with Avetta, however, Range had been working with another vendor whose products and service were not meeting Range’s expectations. “The software system was difficult to work with and customer service was poor,” Burket recalls. For example, when a contractor was flagged by the system, it was difficult to determine what the issues were, making it challenging to evaluate the risk or remediate the situation. He says contractors expressed similar frustrations. Furthermore, the system was expensive, and Burket felt he could find better performance and ease of use at a lower cost. In 2012 Burket decided to make a change and investigated a number of vendors before selecting Avetta. According to Jesse Cota, VP of Operations at Avetta, “Range Resources approached Avetta to handle contractor management services for the company because of our high level of safety expertise.”

AEG, one of the fastest growing environmental specialists in California, faced significant challenges as it expanded rapidly. The company needed to elevate its safety practices and procedures to manage the increased number of workers, jobs, and regulatory requirements. Bill Wood, Director of Client Relations for AEG, highlighted the need to manage and track their total recordable incident rate (TRIR) effectively. The company was also looking for ways to connect with more clients and ensure that only the safest, most qualified workers made it onsite.

Paper forms and Excel spreadsheets. That’s how Huntsman Corporation managed its contractors in the past. A global company with headquarters in Texas and offices around the world, Huntsman depended on two or three individuals to track the statuses of its contractors, according to David Matheny, Huntsman Corporate Safety. Contractors filled out paper prequalification forms (PQFs) and information would be saved in spreadsheets that served as a contractor database. When plant managers needed to know the status of a given contractor and whether they were cleared to work at the site, “I’d get the phone call because they didn’t have access to that data,” says Matheny. “Very inefficient” is how he remembers that period, “and very, very time consuming.”\n\nMatheny is responsible for environment, health, and safety at Huntsman. It’s his job to ensure that contractors who work with the company as part of its supply chain meet training and safety requirements. Matheny readily admits that the company’s manual, in-house method for tracking contractors meant much of his time was spent managing paperwork. “And that’s just not the best use of my time,” he says. It took him away from his real job: creating a world-class safety organization. This includes visiting the sites to conduct training and ensure safety procedures are followed. Before contractors can begin working with Huntsman, they must complete a prequalification evaluation with information about safety records and insurance.

CEMEX, a global leader in building solutions, faced significant challenges with its paper-based supplier performance monitoring system. The system was time-consuming, required day-to-day attention, and was difficult to sustain. The company needed a technology-based solution to deliver additional information with more efficient administration. The goal was to ensure safety across all business units and improve supply chain visibility. CEMEX aimed to transition smoothly from the existing paper-based system to a new, automated platform without disrupting ongoing operations or compromising safety standards. Effective contractor management was crucial for CEMEX to achieve its goal of zero injuries, and the company sought a trusted third-party partner to implement a proven supply chain risk management solution.

As a leading provider of infrastructure services to the wireless telecommunications industry, Vertical Limit plans, builds, modifies, optimizes, and maintains wireless networks across North America. Cell towers are located in all types of environments, from swamplands to remote mountain tops to city streets—and they all must be accessed by Vertical Limit in time of repair or replacement. Because these towers can have technical issues at any time of the day or night, the company depends on contractors to supplement staff whenever and wherever they are needed. With human safety a primary concern at these worksites, hiring qualified and well-trailed contractors is an essential component of Vertical Limit’s business. “Unlike traditional service companies, we send our contractors to places where few people have been before. Finding and approving qualified contractors is a time-and resource-intensive manual process that can take weeks,” said Justin Gillette, Director of Risk Management at Vertical Limit. Working on cell towers hundreds of feet above the ground can be a risky endeavor if not done to exacting standards. With a zero-incident philosophy, Vertical Limit’s staff needed to move beyond its manual processes to an effective platform to prequalify potential contractors for its growing business. “At Vertical Limit, safety is at our core. We live and breathe it every day. We need to be sure qualified people are on our projects, ensuring everyone comes home safely,” said Eric Bicknese, CEO of Vertical Limit.

With almost 30,000 cell towers globally, many in remote locations, SBA Communications subcontracts repair and upgrade services to a network of almost 2,500 independent contractors. Given the potentially dangerous working environments at the cell tower sites, SBA wanted to ensure its contractors were compliant with government safety regulations and insurance requirements. However, without a central database and search capability for contractor information, checking this data was a time-consuming manual process. After a spike in cell-tower-related injuries in 2014, SBA wanted a contractor safety and compliance solution. They needed a more efficient way to manage contractor safety and compliance without hiring additional staff.

The client was facing challenges in its documentation and compliance classification for its suppliers based on the “stale” data being provided. This meant that certain key indicators that the client needed to verify its supplier’s capabilities were often outdated, unverified, or lacking quality insights. Between 2008-2012, compliance and operational data provided by 50% of the client’s suppliers wasn’t updated in the given time span. Simply put, the data being provided was not fresh, current, or reliable in most cases. The challenges associated with sub-optimal supplier data are only exacerbated the larger an organization gets – a factor that was applicable for Storm Resources as well. This was further complicated by the provincial WCB industry coding system used for audits in Canada. For example, Alberta alone had over 600 different industry codes to manage different industries across the province, so when paired with various other territories in the country it would be a significant logistical burden to assign the right codes to the right supplier audits. The client needed a supplier management partner to lighten their burden with regards to prequalification, compliance, and supplier management. Specifically, the client wanted a supplier management partner that would help them facilitate the processes and not drive their business as a whole.

Valard Construction faced challenges with their existing subcontractor management system, which lacked a clear statistical perspective. They needed a more intuitive process to ensure fast, seamless, and secure onboarding of subcontractors and suppliers. Additionally, they required better and more targeted monitoring of their subcontractors and suppliers to improve overall efficiency and compliance.

As a small company of only four employees, Doty Energy Group is focused on the tasks of running a successful business, from providing outstanding service to managing relationships with clients. Doty Energy Group was asked to register with Avetta by one of these key clients as a means to qualify for work. Avetta houses, reviews, and audits safety programs and related documents to ensure client safety requirements are met. For a small business like Doty Energy Group this process can add time to their administrative processes. To qualify for work and become compliant, Doty Energy Group would need to submit the various safety documents to review within the Avetta system. However, some required items, such as a robust safety manual were not currently in place. Doty Energy Group was concerned about the working hours it would take to create and implement the required changes as part of this new process.

Over the years, Sabre Industries onboarded several subcontractors at various levels of scale to execute their operations. At any given point of time, they had close to 400 subcontractors working for them. Such a substantial number led to significant logistical challenges, which became more pronounced as the processes were manually executed. For starters, the volume of documentation for prequalification and regulation of processes; in the form of master service agreements (MSAs), certificates of insurance (COIs), and purchase orders (POs), among others; was immense. Secondly, the entirety of the documentation required close monitoring to detect crucial issues such as suppliers with no MSAs and insurance renewals, and consequently, suppliers issued POs without proper documentation to approve them. From subcontractor audits to document mailing, monitoring, and maintenance, the processes were manual in nature and overseen by an in-house team. The team was finding it difficult to run the processes for such a vast subcontractor network.

Rassaun Services Inc. faced a significant management challenge due to the growing number of empaneled contractors. The task of double-checking credentials, safety and compliance practices, evaluating requisite skills, and managing a huge amount of manual paperwork and documentation associated with onboarding subcontractors proved to be cumbersome. The management needed to spend significant time maintaining and accessing data physically, which increased effort and operational cost. They needed a systematic, structured, and comprehensive worker management program to monitor and manage their subcontractor base effectively.

DECIEM faced two challenges in contractor management. First, their success in the market meant that they needed to transition into a larger manufacturing site. As a result, they began to use more contractors to help with renovations and larger production orders. On a second front, they faced the task of onboarding contractors overseas, which was a unique challenge in and of itself. While expanding, the company found it increasingly difficult to identify and source contractors for their facilities. Additionally, with a large number of new contractors required across their global operations, contractors across centers, the volume of documentation required for prequalification and standardization of processes was stifling the in-house teams and causing errors on various levels. In short, DECIEM realized the need to outsource its contractor management function to save time and resources, while also reducing the scope of errors considerably.

This company used to shut down its major construction material plants for two weeks annually for equipment repair and maintenance. Since the task was extensively outsourced, there was a need to document numerous contract workers from various service providers and subsequently train them and provide access to relevant plant sites. To use the shut-down period optimally, and eventually reduce it, the company needed to ensure that the contract workers and service providers met its qualification standards before they arrived at the site.\n\nPrior to using Avetta, the company had an inefficient, manual process for collecting, reviewing, and managing service providers’ and contract workers’ information. Its procurement staff was spending up to 25% of the time on obtaining and validating insurance certificates of the service providers. It sometimes took weeks to sort out issues if a supplier was missing documentation. Since it was a manual process, the company was also not confident that their supplier information was 100% validated.\n\nThe company needed a system to: Automate vendor information management, Get unified visibility into vendor capabilities, Assess risks associated with each vendor.

In order to maintain business continuity and drive competitiveness for large capital projects, UPI had to ensure that it was maintaining a healthy pool of qualified and trained subcontractors. However, the company realized that its subcontractors were not operating at a desired level and knew something had to be done. Training to upskill the subcontractors was a cumbersome task for the company with productive time being spent on repetitive training processes. With the added burden of extra paperwork that kept piling on, the existing training programs were constantly raising the operational cost and making the entire process longer than necessary. Additionally, managing and monitoring subcontractors onsite was an added challenge for the operators. It was clear that UPI needed to overhaul its subcontractor training process. After careful consideration and much deliberation, they decided to collaborate with Avetta and opt for the Worker Management solution.

UPI’s existing subcontractors were not at par with the accepted compliance standards and their credentials were not thoroughly verified. This left the company’s procurement team in a lot of doubt. Although UPI enjoyed a legacy of serving Oil and Gas clients for decades together, their internal prequalification processes were not foolproof, leading to increased man-hours and operational costs. After careful evaluation, the company discovered that it was not properly vetting its subcontractors. The existing process was largely paper-based and it mandated subcontractors to fill-out basic safety questions through a paper form. The pressure to comply with diverse compliance policies required UPI to stay constantly vigilant to the most stringent requirements in the industry. Additionally, a constant rise in operational costs was also a major concern as pricing was one of the determining factors behind the success or failure of a business proposal. Given this scenario, UPI required an overhaul in the supplier management function. Its leadership team realized that attempting to build their own solution to address these gaps would be an enormous job. After much discussions and careful evaluation of several vendor capabilities, UPI partnered with Avetta.

Raymac Surveys faced significant challenges in securing appropriate and cost-effective insurance coverage for its specialized surveying activities. The company struggled with high insurance costs and time-consuming documentation processes. Additionally, Raymac Surveys needed to frequently adjust general liability amounts to meet client requirements, which was a cumbersome process. The company also sought to streamline the process of answering supplier questionnaires and providing insurance information to clients. Furthermore, Raymac Surveys aimed to obtain cybersecurity insurance to protect its business activities in the future.

For a small but growing telecommunications company, insurance is often one of the bigger expenses. However, the cost of not insuring your business is unthinkable. FastTrac Telecom Services LLC, a supplier in the Avetta network, wanted to see if there was a more cost-effective insurance option available. Shortly after they became introduced to USA Telecom Insurance Services through the Avetta Marketplace.

As a growing international utility company, EPCOR strives to meet customer needs, provide a safe work environment, and comply with government regulations. Contractors help the company keep its water, sewer, and power systems in peak working order. Management of the contractor relationships across its supply chain was spread throughout the various business units. However, EPCOR wanted a consistent contractor vetting process to ensure that it had the right contractors in the right place and at the right time, and to reduce risk for everyone. To support the continued growth of the company, EPCOR committed to improving prequalification, centralizing prequalification functions, and providing consistent contractor oversight to all the company’s business units. But meeting those goals requires significant administrative work to obtain and verify contractor information and keep the data current. To remain competitive and reach its quality and safety goals, EPCOR needed a system that would reduce its administrative burden and ensure the accurate and consistent vetting of contractors.

STM Brands faced significant challenges in managing inventory costs and movement due to heavy reliance on spreadsheets. This led to sub-optimal supply planning, resulting in expensive air freight to ensure timely delivery of goods, negatively impacting margins. The company also lacked insight into market shifts, leading to slow, reactive responses and outdated or excess inventory. Disconnected planning and decision-making further limited collaboration between sales, purchasing, and production teams.

TCHO faced significant challenges in demand, supply, and inventory planning, leading to stockouts and customer service issues. The company needed to improve service levels while minimizing the risk of obsolete inventory. They lacked an automated method for material requirements planning (MRP) and their existing planning tool was too complex, hindering agile decision-making. Additionally, there was a lack of bi-directional integration between TCHO’s NetSuite ERP system and the current planning tool, causing extensive manual work.

The company’s ERP/MRP system worked well but couldn’t provide the flexibility of detailed capacity planning or sales and operational planning (S&OP) the company needed to remain competitive. Monthly manual forecasting done on spreadsheets was time-consuming, out of date, and inaccurate. The company could not get detailed shop floor control through visual finite capacity planning for a realistic snapshot of work center loading, late jobs, lead times, or inventory. Unable to provide a high level of service to the company’s top 100 customers without stocking inventory—raw material from overseas required a two to three-month lead time; but, customer lead time was less than a month.