Eprocurement takes off at Airbus

Airbus has managed to get 15,000 suppliers using its new eprocurement system.

The aircraft manufacturer has gone live with the 'sourcing' module of its Sup@irWorld electronic collaboration initiative, a 50m euro (£34.8m) project to introduce web-based interaction between the company and its suppliers.

Airbus is using technology from vendor Ariba to operate the eprocurement system, which will eventually process the bulk of its purchasers.

'This application is intended to support any kind of products or services within our company,' said Frederic Geoffrion, Airbus e-sourcing manager. 'It covers flying and non-flying materials and processes, strategic data as well as non-strategic. Virtually everything is intended to be processed by the tool.'

Sourcing is one of four domains that make up Sup@irWorld. The others are 'buy-side', which operates an online catalogue of all general procurement items.

The 'supply chain' domain, which will use technology from supplier i2, will allow the company to exchange information with its suppliers, while the 'foundation' domain will look after information and data about suppliers.

Sourcing is the only domain that is currently live, but Geoffrion says the rest of the project is on course to be fully operational by the end of the year.