Official CBA supplier onboarding and management portal

The CBA (Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio) - a part of the Votorantim Group - stands as one of the largest aluminum companies in Brazil and Latin America. Established in 1955, it pioneered the integration of high-quality and sustainable aluminum production. Recognized for its self-sufficiency in bauxite extraction, energy production, and leadership in industrial recycling, CBA has been a key player in the industry.

The development of the supplier risk management and onboarding process encounters various challenges, especially in medium to large enterprises. For the procurement department to benefit from supplier relationships, onboarding suppliers is essential. Currently, this involves a time-consuming process of collecting and validating multiple documents to ensure compliance with the company's risk policy and quality audits. Manual handling of bureaucratic tasks takes away valuable time from the team that could be directed toward the strategic development of supplier relationships.

Until 2020, this was the scenario at CBA. However, the Supply Chain department of CBA sought solutions to simplify the supplier onboarding process. According to the project manager, the objective was to implement a user-friendly tool that would streamline and simplify the approval process, instilling confidence in data for intelligent and strategic analysis in the Supplier Management area.

The main challenges

• Manual and inefficient supplier registration process, taking over 30 days or more for supplier onboarding and registration, with excessive email and call exchanges between suppliers and the Supplier Management/Procurement department regarding doubts in the old platform;

• Both suppliers and buyers had a poor experience in collecting the necessary documentation for registration in the ERP;

• Manual spreadsheets were managing expired documents of critical suppliers, as it was not possible to automate this process in the onboarding platform. This was a critical point in data management, as this administration ensures CBA's specific certifications when evidence is required in Quality certification audits;

• The onboarding platform did not provide the possibility of extracting a database for strategic manipulation and management in BI tools, preventing risk management and strategic analysis on a base of more than 3500 suppliers.

The solution

Supplier Approval and Management Portal

The Linkana software acts as the sole entry for each supplier. It offers CBA an automated process for generating certificates and evaluating public inquiries, as well as collecting and reviewing CBA's private documents. All expirations are now automatically monitored, ensuring that supplier data remains up-to-date and managed reliably even if changes and updates occur throughout the supplier's lifecycle.

All this process is carried out with just 1 click. Simply having the supplier's CNPJ and email contact for Linkana to start generating over 30 public information and initiate automated contact with the supplier, who receives access to the platform to store their information and, if necessary, technical support from Linkana. Even after submitting the private documents, Linkana handles all billing, evaluation, and review of all information, ensuring the supplier's delivery in the final stage of the process with all necessary documents for the decision-making regarding the supplier's approval or rejection according to the company's risk policy.

Each generated information is auditable and has a risk level linked to its supply category. The combination generates a confidence score and the recommendation of whether to approve or not approve a supplier. With all suppliers in a single system, this database offers strategic analysis on supplier risk and qualities through dashboards and reports.

Generated benefits

Operational efficiency and usability

With Linkana, the onboarding time for a new supplier has been reduced by about 80% (from 30 to 6 business days). In addition, the automations provided by the platform generated a saving of 3 to 4 hours per day for analysts to focus on tasks that add value and strategically drive the Performance & Supplier Management department.

The supplier experience was improved through simplification and removal of complexity. Now, there is no longer a need for buyers or Supplier Management to assist suppliers and internal stakeholders with issues from the old platform. The NPS of the approved supplier base today is above 96%.

Strategic data management and ESG policy development