Category: Transport and Logistics 

Winner: Airbus

Partner: Taulia

Summing up: A large-scale SCF programme designed to be expanded to more than 12,000 global suppliers with the aim of improving the health of the supply chain and provide access to affordable financing.

What the judges said: “Very strong case, with significant numbers outlining the financial strengthening of the supply chain via the solution.” “Impressive results both in terms of speed, supplier acceptance and working capital impact.”

Key Facts:

• Platform is scalable to cover Airbus’s 12,000 supplier network
• Provides affordable financing options to suppliers
• Freed up significant working capital for Airbus’s new aircraft delivery targets

Entry:

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus needed a supply chain finance (SCF) programme that could be scaled across their entire supply chain including 12,000 suppliers.

It wanted to provide its suppliers access to affordable financing options while at the same time meeting the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals of ensuring the health of its entire supply chain.

It also had ambitious new aircraft delivery targets and looked at SCF as a means of unlocking working capital from its supply chain.

Airbus decided to partner with financial technology firm Taulia rather than a bank as it offered a speedier onboarding process with less time-consuming KYC processes.

The manufacturer has achieved its main objectives of the programme. It has strengthened supply chain health through the provision of more affordable finance for suppliers and it has successfully streamlined accounts payables processes resulting in a ‘massive’ reduction in supplier queries.

It has accelerated an impressive volume of early payments to-date, covering a substantial chunk of total spend, according to data disclosed only to this year’s judges.

The ability for suppliers to on-board themselves within minutes by filling in one form is just one example of the smooth implementation process that helped strengthen Airbus’s supplier relations and enabled the programme to be quickly scaled.

Feedback from suppliers has been largely positive, with many appreciating the reliability of the platform and its reconciliation features.

The programme successfully provided Airbus suppliers with just one platform for their invoices which has enhanced transparency, enabled suppliers to more easily track their invoices and improved supplier relations.

It has also freed up significant working capital – exact details of which were disclosed to this year’s judges – from the supply chain that Airbus can now use to achieve its new aircraft delivery goals.

The programme was designed to be scalable and able to handle suppliers from more than 100 different countries and various currencies. It only took five days for Airbus to upgrade their SAP systems to be able to handle multiple currencies.

In the 12 months since the programme was launched, the aircraft manufacturer’s focus on it supply chain has further sharpened, as it targets to deliver new aircrafts and works out its plans to manage any potential disruption if the UK does leave the EU in the coming months.

Against this backdrop, it is planning to implement the second phase of the programme and on-board its remaining suppliers not included in the first phase.

This next phase will also include the on-boarding of Airbus Helicopters and Defence and Space onto the programme so their suppliers can benefit from early payment as well.