In procurement, we have a wide variety of professional careers, from technical merchant to industrial engineer to business economist. In any case, it is advantageous to have both business and technical expertise, coupled with good communication skills. Furthermore, from my point of view, personality and a good feeling for others are a decisive success factor, because ultimately business is done with people.

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What tasks have you taken on during your career at Baumer?

In addition to the further development of procurement processes, key figures and tools, I was able to take care of indirect spend, i.e. the negotiation of capital goods, software, etc. It was also exciting to develop the fragmented purchasing structures into a well-networked and powerful Baumer Group purchasing organization as well as an extremely successful procurement office in China.

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What interfaces do you deal with in your job?

That's the cool thing about procurement – there's no area we don't deal with. Thus, the question 'which interfaces do you not deal with in your job' would be easier to answer. 

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What distinguishes Baumer for you?

We have a great deal of freedom and can make a difference. Our collegial atmosphere, the high level of identification with Baumer and our great products are also valuable aspects for me. In addition, Baumer cultivates an «entrepreneurial culture», i.e. everyone acts as if it was their own company.

• We are proud of all our new smart sensors, for which we were able to make a contribution to success as part of project purchasing.
• The fact that the departments are happy to draw on our expertise and that we have been able to build up a good standing in recent years.
• On our selected, high-performance suppliers who supply us with high-quality and technically sophisticated components on a daily basis. 
• The fact that we were able to supply the majority of our production with the required parts during the semiconductor crisis in 2021 and 2022. 
• The successful development of new sources of supply in «best-cost countries» and the associated strengthening of our competitiveness.

Strategic Procurement takes care of cross-site procurement activities. This includes, for example, supplier qualification, contract negotiations, benchmarking and the development of material group strategies.

In order to optimize procurement processes, the team works with different visualization methods. Here, for example, outlining a procurement process with cards.

During on-site supplier visits, Alex presents the product landscape, as well as Baumer's procurement specifications and contractual conditions. This gives our potential suppliers an impression of the applicable cooperation conditions and expectations.

The day-to-day work of a strategic buyer also includes business trips to our international suppliers in order to get an idea of the competencies on site.