Driving Digital Change with Nissan

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By Sam Gilpin (Regional Manager in Nissan’s indirect Purchase Project Management Team)

Sometimes we all need a bit of help, whether that’s in education, the workplace or in the everyday hustle and bustle of family life.

I work on the project management side in Nissan’s busy procurement department and recently I approached Northumbria University Business Clinic to gain some outside insight into the way we work. In particular, I wanted to know how we could improve our processes and procedures for buying goods, services, supplies and materials, which includes everything from computers to software, utilities and travel.

We spend around €1.5-€2 billion a year on indirect purchasing so it’s a really important part of the business. Previously we were managing the purchasing side of things mainly by logging data on Excel spreadsheets. While this was okay to an extent, we knew that going forward we needed to introduce a much more efficient system that would allow buyers and purchasing project managers to have greater visibility on spend and stock levels, and more control over each stage of the buying process.

This was the task we set students from the Business Clinic. Displaying consummate professionalism throughout, they undertook a comprehensive review of our current purchasing environment, further research to understand industry best practice on purchasing project management systems, and gave us recommendations that would help us optimise the digitalisation of our purchasing processes.

Their recommendations included the implementation of three project management systems that have been tried and tested in other organisations of similar size. The main one, Monday.com, is a cloud-based platform that allows users to create their own applications and project management software. According to the students’ research,  this platform could save us 3,500 work hours a year and is 1.5 times more efficient than not using a project management system at all.

No stone was left unturned by the students. They even came up with a novel idea to implement new project management systems via change champions – experienced professionals at Nissan who could drive changes in attitude and approach across various departments within the business.

We received some great ideas from the students as well as vital intelligence on what our competitors are doing. Their project report went into great detail and every recommendation was fully costed, allowing us to make a considered business case for taking each one forward. Their proactive approach was refreshing and they took the time and effort to really get under the skin of our business.

From a personal point of view, I know full well the advantages of forging strong working links between academia and industry. Eight years ago I completed a business management degree at Northumbria and followed that up with an MBA from the same institution. During my studies I got the opportunity to liaise with industry professionals and I suppose I’m giving something back to the current crop of students – this time by passing on the benefit of my experience from the industry side of the fence!

Our recent collaboration with Northumbria Business Clinic was mutually beneficial for the students and Nissan. The students reinforced our belief that we needed to embrace digital technology to make our purchasing processes much more streamlined and efficient. Our next task is to look at their recommendations in more detail and work out how we can take them forward.

 

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