CBA

Operational efficiency, digital transformation and sustainability applied to the supply chain. Those were the main results achieved by Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA), part of the Votorantim Group, by deploying Linkana as its supplier management and due diligence platform.

In this article, you’ll see the full project details, including:

• CBA’s context before Linkana;
• The challenges faced by the procurement area;
• The evolution of due diligence and ESG;
• Impact on SLA, compliance and supplier maturity;
• Adoption of Tier 2 practices and performance dashboards;
• How CBA became a national reference in supplier management with a lean team.

About CBA: a reference in sustainability and verticalized aluminum management in Brazil

CBA – Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio is one of the country’s main base industries and the only fully verticalized aluminum company in Brazil, operating from mining to the end product, including its own energy generation.

With over 6,000 active suppliers and nationwide presence, the company carries in its DNA a commitment to sustainability, governance and innovation. That commitment is what drove the search for a robust solution to restructure CBA’s supplier base management — a challenge addressed strategically starting in 2020.

The challenge: 42 days to qualify a supplier and no document control

In 2020, CBA lived a common scenario for large Brazilian companies: manual, slow and decentralized due diligence. The full supplier approval process took on average 42 calendar days, hurting operations and creating bottlenecks in procurement and service contracting.

On top of that, the company was preparing its IPO on B3, which required high levels of governance, traceability and regulatory control — impossible to guarantee with the model in place.

The platform in use was SAP Ariba, efficient for procurement but not specific for supplier due diligence and document compliance. That made standardization, risk control and compliance with legal and ESG requirements harder.

Choosing Linkana: technology to boost supplier management in Brazil

That’s when CBA met Linkana, then still early in market but already with an innovative proposal: centralize, automate and make auditable the full supplier due diligence and monitoring process, with reliable data integrated to the company ERP.

Even as one of the first platform customers, CBA saw in Linkana a perfect alignment between what it needed and what the technology offered. The partnership was built collaboratively, with the solution evolving alongside the customer.

Phase 1 – Deployment and base reorganization: 3,000+ suppliers qualified in the first year

The first project step was a strategic cut: CBA started qualifying 2,500 suppliers with some transaction activity in the 2020 baseline year. To those were added all new suppliers onboarded in 2021. In a single year, more than 3,000 suppliers were qualified in Linkana.

This phase involved much more than technology. The company also reviewed internal processes, engaged areas like compliance and procurement, and ran a broad supplier acculturation effort so everyone understood the benefits of the new approach.

The result? A 50% SLA reduction in the first cycle alone, dropping from 42 to 21 days.

Phase 2 – Document governance and risk-based categorization: 93 due diligence categories

With operations stabilized in Linkana, CBA moved to a more refined supplier base management. The team built 93 due diligence categories, classified by supply type and risk level, each with specific document requirements.

Eliminating criteria were adopted for high-risk suppliers, and informational-only categories for lower-impact cases. That enabled much tighter regulatory control, reducing failures, automating verifications and speeding up the process.

Phase 3 – ESG as a strategic factor: maturity assessment and new sustainable categories

Starting in 2022, CBA took a bold step: it added sustainability, governance and social responsibility (ESG) criteria to the due diligence journey.

6 new sustainability categories were created, layered onto the existing 93, so each supplier could be assessed by segment. For example:

• Recycling companies have different requirements from mining companies;
• Administrative service providers don’t need to present the same documents as industrial suppliers.

At this stage, the goal wasn’t to eliminate less sustainable suppliers, but to understand their ESG maturity level and propose continuous development.

Phase 4 – Expansion and impact: ESG index from 1.3 to 2 and 6,000+ tax IDs assessed

After piloting with strategic suppliers (who represent 75% of company spend), the ESG due diligence was rolled out to the entire base. Nearly 6,000 suppliers (root tax IDs) were assessed based on evidence and documents submitted via Linkana.

The average ESG maturity index, previously 1.3 (on a 1–4 scale), rose to 2, indicating suppliers not only adapted but evolved significantly. The process expanded to include in-person audits and self-assessments, closing the ESG cycle.

Phase 5 – Tier 2 and performance dashboards: full supply chain traceability

In 2024, CBA hit another milestone: Tier 2 monitoring — the main suppliers of its suppliers. Today, about 380 Tier 2 suppliers are monitored with public data integrated into the Linkana platform.

The company also launched a Supplier Performance Dashboard with indicators on documentation, due diligence time and ESG index. This dashboard underpinned CBA’s first supplier awards event, reinforcing the culture of partnership and excellence.

The ESG index is worth 20% of the final performance score for strategic suppliers, encouraging best practices and recognizing those who invest in sustainability.

Phase 6 – Continuous optimization: SLA hits 8 days with a lean team and automation

Today, with just 3 people in supplier management and 2 more dedicated to Linkana onboarding, CBA can:

• Manage 6,000 active suppliers;
• Control 110,000+ documents already reviewed;
• Reduce due diligence SLA to just 8 calendar days.

The company keeps this process alive, evolving with national and international benchmarks and improving the supplier experience across the chain.

Conclusion: Linkana as a catalyst for high-performance supplier management

The Linkana–CBA partnership shows it’s possible to digitally transform supplier management in Brazil, focusing on performance, compliance, ESG and scalability.

More than technology, Linkana delivers a new mindset for companies looking to evolve their procurement strategically and sustainably.

Want to transform your supplier management like CBA?

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