We need to ensure that our purchasing
practices enable our suppliers to
live up to our demands, for example,
by providing reasonable lead times,
fair pricing, timely payments and transparent
communication. To measure
how well we are doing in this respect,
we survey our suppliers every year
anonymously. Today, 76% of our suppliers
see us as a fair business partner.
Our goal is to reach 90% by 2018 at
the latest.
To achieve this, our focus is to ensure
that all our suppliers receive seasonal
production plans. This means that
they will be able to plan their capacity
utilisation well ahead. Furthermore
it allows us to help suppliers
spread their production over the year
to reduce peaks as well as unused
capacity in low seasons. This brings
a number of benefits for the suppliers such as planning security, a stable
income and better capacity utilisation.
Doing so is also an important
contribution to reducing overtime
hours through better staff planning.
We are also developing our purchasing
practices with regard to our Fair
Living Wage Roadmap (s. 2.13).