A major healthcare provider managing over 1 million purchase orders (POs) annually, with a transaction value exceeding $4 billion, faced challenges in its procurement processes, including limited visibility across sourcing categories, inefficient approval workflows, and fragmented knowledge management. To address these issues, ASC Associates partnered with the organization to redesign its procurement function, leveraging automation and process optimization to create a streamlined, agile operation.
(Procurement Process Optimization and Automation)
ASC Associates implemented a comprehensive transformation strategy focused on enhancing visibility, automating workflows, and standardizing processes across procurement.
Key Activities and Accomplishments:
- Process Automation (RPA): Introduced Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate PO approval workflows, accelerate review cycles and improve the speed of PO placement.
- Organizational Redesign: Restructured the procurement organization to align resources with workload demand, enabling greater flexibility and improved workload distribution.
- Procurement Knowledge Management System: Developed a centralized knowledge management system, providing standardized processes and best practices to ensure consistency and improve decision-making across sourcing categories.
- Enhanced Category Visibility: Improved visibility into sourcing categories, enabling data-driven insights and strategic decision-making to optimize spending.
The results of ASC Associates' engagement were transformative:
- Efficiency Gains: Streamlined organizational workflows, resulting in a more agile and adaptable procurement team.
- Cycle Time Reduction: Reduced overall PO cycle time, decreasing costs associated with processing by 30%.
- Cost Savings: Achieved significant reductions in overall procurement costs, driven by improved efficiency and automation.
Through ASC Associates’ expertise in procurement transformation, process automation, and knowledge management, the healthcare provider gained a highly efficient and responsive procurement organization equipped to handle high transaction volumes with agility and precision.
