SUPPLY CHAIN within the market sector , an approach which has led to the company exploring other business avenues .
“ Essentially , we have the advantage of many companies have actually done some really great things that we can leverage . We can follow it , so it gives us that late-mover advantage of saying , ‘ There is a model , somebody cut their teeth on it a little bit , and we can actually apply it and gain lots of advantage .’ A good example would be outsourcing , which BD has started to do more .
“ There used be zero appetite for it ; the philosophy was that our business extended to the fence at the end of our offices – the attitude is that we could do things better than anyone – which is obviously now not smart . So , this idea of outsourcing is an example where we ’ re smartly doing certain things . We recently outsourced some IT and it drove tremendous value .”
On leveraging new technology – AI , machine learning , automation , et al – to drive BD ’ s procurement journey and transformation , Williams is unequivocal . “ I am convinced that is the wave of our future across all of our categories , not just indirect – our focus on digital is laser .
“ I ’ ve assigned members of our IT procurement team to develop strategies for their peers in departments such as IT , finance , legal , sales and marketing , plant indirect , etc . What we ’ re asking them to do is pair up and look at digital opportunities where there ’ s machinery involved and you can use technology to be smarter .
“ We think on a long-term basis , we could drive hundreds of millions of dollars in the categories themselves by leveraging technology . We are looking at what we can get working on today , and what is perhaps in more of a concept stage that we need to develop to eventually make it usable .”
Global R & D Procurement Less than 12 months old , BD ’ s Global R & D Procurement division is headed up by Noelle Lee . She leads a global team of associates and that help drive sourcing strategies that supports BD ’ s innovation pipeline , enabling top-line growth and accelerated time to market . She says the division was
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