Procurement is the process by which Astellas evaluates suppliers’ capabilities, negotiates commercial agreements and arranges for the delivery of goods or services.
There are four major disciplines within Astellas Global Procurement:
Category Management is the practice of segmenting the main areas of Astellas’ spend on purchased goods or services according to their common and similar characteristics. By grouping similar purchases, Astellas Global Procurement can develop category-specific strategies to optimize quality, delivery and cost.
Once a category of spend has been defined and a strategy developed, Astellas Global Procurement often utilizes ‘strategic sourcing’ to identify the best supplier for our needs. The strategic sourcing process generally involves documenting Astellas requirements, searching for potential suppliers, issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP), evaluating supplier responses, selecting finalist suppliers and negotiating a commercial arrangement. The Astellas strategic sourcing process is fact-based, rigorous and consistent. We negotiate firmly, fairly and in good faith.
Supplier Relationship Management is the process by which Astellas Global Procurement optimizes the relationship we have with our its suppliers. SRM is an umbrella term for a broad group of supplier-customer interventions which may lead to increased effectiveness, reduced cost, innovation, risk mitigation and the like. The overall objective of SRM is to maximize the potential of the relationship to the benefit of both Astellas and its suppliers.
Astellas Global Procurement has aligned itself to a matrix model with geographic region and category as the axes. We have five category teams focused on our highest-level categories and three regions across the world. The five main categories are Information Technology, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Professional Services, Marketing and Research & Development. The three main regions are Asia Pacific, headquartered in Japan, Americas headquartered in the United States, and EMEA, headquartered in the United Kingdom.
This matrix model allows Astellas Global Procurement to build expertise in each major type of purchase while remaining flexible to the unique nuances of differing regions across the world. Additionally, Astellas Global Procurement has infused local Procurement Business Partners within many specific countries to allow for even more customized procurement services to be delivered in those countries where such support is needed.
Finally, Astellas Global Procurement includes a global center of excellence knowns as Procurement Excellence which provides process, technology, training and reporting expertise to the category teams.
