Erfolgsgeschichten (not used currently)
Direct Efficiency Gains in Time and Cost Through Data and Spend Transparency
SED Flow Control GmbH
🏗 Industry: Diaphragm Valve Technologies
🗺 Headquarters: Bad Rappenau, Germany
🧍 Employees: ~ 120
💶 Revenue ~ $18M per year
SED Flow Control is a subsidiary of Samson AG and is one of the leading manufacturers of diaphragm valve technologies. These high-quality diaphragm valves are produced at their own manufacturing facility in Bad Rappenau, Germany, from where they are shipped to customers worldwide. SED Flow Control primarily serves the pharmaceutical and food & beverage industries. Its customers include major vaccine manufacturers around the world, who experienced tremendous economic growth during the COVID crisis.
"With Tacto, we only need about 20% of the time previously required to prepare for supplier meetings. Revenue and price trends can be viewed at the click of a button. Tacto also displays overall supplier performance and development instantly, uncovering risks that can be directly addressed in conversations with the supplier." - Patrick Leyhr, Head of Operational Procurement
Initial Situation and Challenges
At SED Flow Control, one of the biggest challenges in procurement was the lack of transparency around supplier data and, consequently, the opacity of purchasing volumes. There were no procurement-side reporting capabilities in the ERP system for suppliers, nor was there a supplier information tool or dashboard to retrieve supplier data.
Data exports had to go through a central department and could not be performed independently by the procurement team on demand. This meant only a specific data extract (a small subset of information about a supplier) could be requested at a fixed point in time, and it was not flexibly usable. Because every data export had to be routed through a third party, significant time was wasted just on the export process itself.
To make the exported data useful, it had to be manually processed in Excel spreadsheets after the fact. This time-consuming process made it extremely difficult to actively track revenue, product categories, and individual items. As a result, tracking revenue and price trends for suppliers was also extremely challenging.
Additionally, the finance department reported supplier revenue figures to procurement once a year. However, analyzing these numbers was difficult since raw revenue data provided no information about price developments or revenue breakdowns. For every upcoming supplier meeting, about three hours had to be budgeted for preparation alone. Internal coordination before meetings consumed additional time, plus there was the wait time for each data export before every supplier meeting.
Based on this situation, Patrick Leyhr asked himself two central questions: How do we position ourselves for the future? And how do we overcome our existing procurement challenges through digitalization and automation?
3 Needs SED Flow Control Wanted to Address
Flexible, on-demand access to supplier data with breakdowns of revenue and pricing
Visibility into pricing opportunities and pricing outliers across suppliers, plus an overview and mitigation of existing risks and dependencies in the supply chain
Free up capacity in procurement to focus on strategic projects
Tacto as THE Solution
The answer to these two central questions came with Tacto. After extensive market research, Patrick Leyhr chose Tacto as the procurement software and driver of digitalization for SED Flow Control's purchasing department. With Tacto, holistic transparency across all supplier data was achieved as a first step. At the click of a button, all information about suppliers, product categories, and individual items can be viewed and compared. Furthermore, Tacto enables flexible retrieval and export of data at any time.
Additionally, preparation for supplier meetings at SED Flow Control has been significantly simplified with Tacto, making it more efficient and productive. With Tacto, only about 20% of the time previously required for preparation is now needed. Revenue and price trends that serve as the foundation for supplier meetings can be viewed instantly. Tacto also displays overall supplier performance and development at the click of a button, immediately uncovering risks that can be directly addressed in conversations with the supplier. During the meetings themselves, all relevant information about the respective supplier can be flexibly accessed through Tacto.
"With Tacto, we could see exactly how our suppliers are developing and whether, for example, supplier performance has deteriorated. So we can take immediate action and course-correct. Plus, I can instantly verify whether a supplier's claim is accurate or not."
Beyond efficiency gains in supplier meetings, SED Flow Control is also targeting significant cost savings through Tacto. Depending on the component or material, individual product categories and supplier volumes can be examined in detail. This information enables the team to approach suppliers directly and negotiate prices when needed. Additionally, Tacto enables comparison of price trends against raw material costs, opening up further opportunities for price negotiations. This provides an additional lever for cost-effective negotiations. SED Flow Control expects future cost savings in the six-figure range.
3 Wins with Tacto:
Holistic data transparency across suppliers and their revenue and price trends
80% time savings in supplier meeting preparation and 50% time savings in internal discussions about supplier developments
Direct cost savings by leveraging pricing opportunities identified by Tacto at the click of a button
Working with Tacto
The entire process around implementing Tacto was very well prepared.
"We had the corresponding tables ready for data import. The implementation was very transparent and fast — there was little that could have gone better on Tacto's side. The SED Flow Control procurement team also finds Tacto very intuitive. Tacto is built on the principle of 'Keep it short and simple.' Super easy, intuitive, and not overly complex."
What Patrick Leyhr especially values about Tacto is the close collaboration. The support and handling of questions is very open, honest, and solution-oriented. Beyond the Analytics and RFQ modules, SED Flow Control is currently building out the Supplier Portal with Tacto for certificate management and conformity tracking, and has already conducted its first queries. Here too, Patrick Leyhr expects significant time savings through the automation of manual tasks in procurement.
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Many thanks to Patrick Leyhr and the entire team at SED Flow Control for our trusted partnership and collaboration.
Through partners and customers like you, it is possible to continuously develop our product in close exchange and close to the day-to-day realities of procurement, as well as to discuss the topics that matter most to industrial mid-market procurement teams in joint webinars.
Learn how SED Flow Control leveraged Tacto to achieve significant efficiency gains in time and cost through data and spend transparency in procurement.
