Félix Bélisle-Dockrill
CEO & Co-Founder, Axya
Data-driven experts and e-procurement software are needed to reduce supply chain risk and failure for manufacturing buyers and suppliers.
Supply chain management can be truly challenging, and the pandemic exacerbated the challenges faced by both buyers and suppliers. The manufacturing industry is under increasingly high pressure to modernize and digitize its activities to stay competitive. It’s now critical to develop the ability to anticipate when and where issues will happen and to take appropriate steps to counter them. Alongside this need for more information in the supply chain, organizations must overcome challenges, including having visibility on request for quote (RFQ) statuses, ensuring smooth communications with manufacturers, and finding new suppliers with capacity.
The challenges of modern supply chains
One of the main challenges of supply chain management is that clients have a hard time accessing relevant data. Gathering information allows organizations to be ahead of supply chain disruptions, but accessing this information can be difficult.
In addition to the challenges of gathering data, supply chain disruptions are becoming more common. “In the last decades, dispersed supply chains have developed because actors find it’s economically advantageous to seek the least-expensive and most-productive sources of supply,” explains Félix Bélisle Dockrill, CEO and Co-Founder of Axya, a software as a service (SaaS) solution that enables procurement teams and suppliers to be more efficient throughout the procurement process. “These dispersed supply chains develop for good reasons, but they create complicated interdependencies whose risks and vulnerabilities were revealed and accelerated with the pandemic: shortages, inflation, factory closures, and goods waiting forever at ports to be unloaded.”
Maturing digitally
“The previous years have brought many uncertainties, and we’ve experienced the numerous impacts of these complex systems,” continues Bélisle Dockrill. “The lack of data and visibility on some key elements and collaborators played an important role in this disruption. Manufacturing companies must step up their game to follow the pace and be prepared for more challenges in the future.”
A recent study conducted by McKinsey during the pandemic revealed that the level of supply chain digitization and modernization toward the Supply Chain 4.0 ideal seems to dictate how well companies’ supply chains are faring under disruption. “As part of a Harvard Business Review, it was found that only eight per cent of companies worldwide are mature enough digitally to sustain supply chain disruption,” notes Bélisle Dockrill. “This robust study showed that only half of the 300 executives had any sort of real-time data and visibility.”
Reducing supply chain risk and failure
As such, under one of the greatest supply chain stressors in modern times, the majority of companies worldwide weren’t digitally mature enough to effectively navigate this period.
Bélisle Dockrill co-founded Axya to help solve the various challenges he observed after working for a leading aerospace company in a supplier quality control position. He saw firsthand the complexity of supplier relationships and global supply chain management and searched for technology solutions to increase his day-to-day efficiency — but found nothing available that met his needs. As a result, Axya was born.
“Our mission at Axya is to reduce supply chain risk and failure by digitizing and structuring the manufacturing world,” says Bélisle Dockrill. “Our complete solution facilitates and accelerates the sourcing process. We strongly believe that most supply chain issues can be solved with access to the right information, quickly and transparently.”
Procurement software that works
Axya has developed intuitive software to support procurement teams throughout all stages of their work. From RFQ creation to supplier selection to PO follow-up, the company’s e-procurement solution allows users to:
• Work with a platform that is easily integrated with their company’s current processes and systems.
• Bring unprecedented clarity to their operations.
• Enable additional control on the outcomes.
Recognizing the value of buyer-supplier relations, one of Axya’s objectives is to optimize the work and dynamic between the different parties. The company also boasts its fastest-growing network of over 3,500 suppliers for buyers to explore. “Moreover, suppliers also see value using the platform as they can now access and track their RFQs on one single interface,” says Bélisle Dockrill.
Axya has developed expertise in a variety of manufacturing sectors, including transportation, mining, and aerospace. New teams can get up and running in just a few days, and the platform is simple and intuitive to use. It also easily integrates with any ERP system.
