The concept of transparency

Transparency enables negotiations based on the assessment of the value proposition of in time delivered parts.  

On the basis of several companies’ internal data (e.g. general order situation, capacity situation), each order will be evaluated regarding the risk and the incorporated cost of a delayed delivery. From the suppliers’ perspective the actual und prospective capacity situation compared with the outstanding customers orders will be the information base for the negotiation of the incentives. For example, a smaller company with a highly specialised and individualised portfolio could consider dedicated overtimes to fulfil an individual customer order with a high incentive.

For market transparency an electronic market place called inTime Transparency Server will collect and distribute anonymous transaction and negotiation data. Based on the information of the inTime Transparency Server the customer has the possibility to analyse the current situation for the class of goods he is about to order. For example: What is the current average delivery time in the market, what incentives have to be assumed and how much more expensive are quick suppliers in comparison to the average ones? Based on this information an order query can be started. The supplier on the other side has the possibility to compare himself with the rest of the market and identify its weaknesses or strength which allows it, after receiving an order query, to make an offer. This offer is again transferred electronically to the customer who sends a purchase order after checking the offer in terms of costs, delivery date and any additional services.

The inTime Transparency Server will also allow the monitoring of the performance of supply chain related issues of individual manufacturers as well as the performance of the overall network. For the development of the inTime Transparency Server, network performance measurement and management approaches such as “Supply Chain Performance Measurement[1]” or “Value-based Network Controlling[2]” will be partly incorporated.

After receiving the purchase order the supplier starts with the production process and upon completion sends the order to his customer. The receipt of goods on the customer side is electronically recorded and important parameters like negotiated incentive for the delivery reliability, delivery delay etc. are anonymously transferred to the inTime Transparency Server.

Fig. 6 – concept of the inTime Transparency Server

[1] Erdmann, M.K. (2003): Supply Chain Performance Measurement: Operative und strategische Management- und Controllingansätze

[2] Laupper, U.A. (2004): Wertorientierte Netzwerksteuerung: Neue Werttreiber für Unternehmen in Wertschöpfungsnetzen