TotalEnergies Spearheads Digital Innovation in Sustainable Procurement
1. Can you introduce yourself and your background?
I'm Karthik Iyer, Vice President, Head of South Asia for Supply Chain & Procurement at TotalEnergies. I was basically born and raised in mechanical engineer, by profession, completing my MBA in general management. My career in procurement began with the automobile manufacturing company Mahindra, after which I moved to Maersk shipping within the global procurement team. I started as an Assistant Manager, working my way up to General Manager before heading up the global procurement function. For the last three years I've been heading the entire South Asia Region Supply Chain & Procurement for TotalEnergies Oil along with managing a team of 30 People.
2. What is the scope of your current role at TotalEnergies?
First of all, I’m responsible for improving procurement for TotalEnergies, for South Asia. I am also responsible for logistics, warehousing, demand planning and testing. And finally, customer service and customer support. So basically, my role is right from order of placement till the order of delivery - the entire cycle.
3. TotalEnergies has set out the ‘fundamental principles of purchasing’ which specifies the commitments that suppliers are expected to meet in seven key areas. How do you monitor and ensure compliance with these principles?
I think one of the things which we do over here is whenever we onboard a supplier, we ensure that the supplier is sticking to the principles and compliance requirements. That's the first thing. Secondly, before we even onboard them, we do a lot of research. We carry out due diligence and ensure that all the specific requirements are met. We also ensure that we carry out performance evaluations and random checks to ensure that the supplier is always complying to the requirements set.
Image Source: https://totalenergies.com/sustainability/people-s-well-being
4. Do you have any tips for organizations looking to source suppliers from emerging economies in ensuring these suppliers meet sustainability requirements and provide full transparency?
I think the due diligence of the supplier is extremely important specifically when coming from emerging economies. A lot of times, you’re promised something and given something else. You must have clear conversation and accountability. Secondly, with reference to sustainability, it's still a new topic despite being on the agenda for over a decade, we’re only just started to see progress. I think it's responsibility of large organizations to handle suppliers get them to meet the sustainability requirements, to work them towards a long-term vision, ensuring they meet the goals set out by the organization.
5. How do you integrate climate issues throughout the purchasing process currently?
We recommend that suppliers give us services through green energy, use battery operation for gas operated vehicles, ensure that they install solar panels specifically for the requirements which has been put across by us. We purchase recycled items or purchase recyclable products where possible.
6. What has been your biggest challenge in future-proofing your supply chain? What factors must you consider?
The most important challenge is to understand the demand, specifically where the demand has just gone haywire. The challenge of rising prices where the cost is going ballistic whether it be the COVID related costs, or the freight charges have gone up. It’s also difficult to pass on these costs to the customers, which is the question. We speak a lot on digital and automation because what is also important to the digital landscape, automation landscape changes every 2 to 3 years because new things are coming. So, whenever we put across a digital landscape, it's also it's very important to understand that that I mean, you could put a sustainable model which can be refurbished every two or three years so that new demands or no point and implementing tools, a supply chain tool which might work today, but not in five years. So, these are some challenges at this point of time, which we are facing and which we are seeing. How do we work on this aspect with the right plans and finding the right partners to the challenge?
Image Source: https://totalenergies.com/sustainability/stakeholder-relationships-and-advocacy
7. In thinking about the future, what excites you the most in terms of new technologies and innovations that can help you generate efficiencies in the supply chain?
Firstly, the focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning is something which we need to get into the world of supply chain. Second thing is, I think as a customer, what they need is that end to end tracking the moment they place an order, to know how soon the product can be made available to them is something which is being worked on, like how Amazon does. So even today, Amazon is not doing 100% live tracking of the product. They give you an approximate timeline where this time will be delivered. But I mean, the future, I feel, would be that a click of a button each and everything needs to be connected right from the order placement till the raw material. So, everything needs to be a part of one platform. Everything should be digitized. There should be minimal human intervention. And I believe it's only really this is when you know the supply chain, I mean, efficiencies could be brought. So, it's only when you place an order, you would know what a problem is and how you can solve it. Because today we are basically working with a lot of jigsaw puzzles and trying to mix everything through them and not necessarily every time, every time we get the process right, but with the right technologies or the right tools in the future, if we can integrate everything together is where new we will add value to the customer.
8. What will you be sharing at ProcureCon Asia?
I will be sharing about the future of how I envision a supply chain should look maybe for five years or ten years down the line. That is one thing. And the second thing is the clear focus on sustainability, what is the goal and what are the current challenges. Sustainability within emerging economies, of course, it's very easy to put across the target, but I think what's more important is if it’s working at the grassroots level to ensure that whatever targets are put across are logical. At the same time, how do we overcome these challenges with this emerging economy is something which I would like to share.
Kartik will be speaking in a Keynote Panel on the the 7th July 2022,10:55am on
"Becoming a digital native – How can you boost your team’s ‘new tech’ (RPA, blockchain, GPS, Image Recognition and 5G) buying knowledge to meet the needs of your stakeholders in an increasingly digitalised world?"