( ABOVE ) Physicists at a war-time Manhattan Project meeting at the Los Alamos Laboratory . Robert Oppenheimer , a key figure in the evolution of nuclear weapons , is in the middle of the second row , wearing a dark coat
Expansion has meant more staff are required , and with a burgeoning payroll comes an increase in indirect procurement , such as office supplies – another reason LANL needed a more agile procurement solution .
And , as with so many organisations , the pandemic also sent Hipp and her procurement team into overdrive .
“ With working from home , everybody needed a new laptop , so there was a lot of investment in IT infrastructure , and many of those people have remained working from home .”
‘ Breadth of our procurement brings challenges ’ Hipp also says that the breadth and variety of work LANL does brings its own procurement challenges : “ We procure across space exploration , geophysics , medicine and sustainable energy , and each of these present their own challenges .
“ We probably have one of the most unusual procurement functions anywhere . One of the nice things about SAP Ariba is it gives us visibility into each of these areas , which allows us to optimise our processes and address needs quickly ."
58 March 2023