MeRLIN Direct Material Sourcing Solution

Navigate the Complexities of Direct Purchasing Process smoothly with Direct Sourcing Systems

Streamline your Direct Spends with our Direct Procurement Software Solution

MeRLIN’s out-of-the box features for direct material sourcing digitize complex processes and help you focus on strategy enhancing value creation at every stage of your procurement lifecycle.  

In-depth Visibility 

Gain end-to-end insights from real-time analytics on Suppliers, PPV and BOM to build robust and sustainable procurement strategies 

Enhance Supply Chain Collaboration 

Improve collaboration with suppliers and other stakeholders in the supply chain, minimise rework and improve turnaround times

Seamless Integrations

Integrate with your Product Lifecycle Management, ERP and other enterprise systems to achieve end-to-end automation

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Bring Strategy to your Direct Material Purchasing with MeRLIN

MeRLIN’s powerful Direct Material Sourcing Solution allows you to Integrate sourcing with engineering right from the product design stage. Collaborate effectively with cross functional product teams and suppliers to accelerate product innovation and speed to market. 

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Direct Material Procurement Features of MeRLIN

Achieve Product Success through Long Term Value Creation

PLM Interface

Integrate procurement with Project Life Cycle Management (PLM) to keep all stakeholders - internal teams and suppliers aligned to reduce the risk of recalls and non-compliance and thus accelerate time to market. 

Configurable Category Templates 

Set up new commodity/category templates to significantly improve the breadth and depth of information collected from Suppliers and enable powerful analytics. 

Engineering Change Management

Collaborate with internal teams and suppliers on Engineering Changes Management and modifications in order attributes so that everyone stays on the same page. Expedite turnarounds and mitigate the impact of changes.

Analytics

Retrieve actionable insights from real-time sourcing data analytics – PPV, Cost, Spend, Supplier Information, BOMs and more, identify optimization opportunities across the value chain and make data driven decisions

Catalogue Management

Search items / parts easily, find similar parts and save time while responding to RFIs or doing Should Cost calculation. Should is redundant.

BOM Management 

Get a comprehensive view of all items in your product’s Bill of Materials - Part Cost Breakdown, Suppliers, Volumes and more. Compare BOM versions from various stage-gates and find saving opportunities. 

Demand Consolidation

Consolidate demand across multiple sourcing programs across the enterprise to achieve greater volumes and increase negotiation power.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Direct Procurement or Direct Material Sourcing? 

Direct Spend or Direct Material Procurement or Direct Material Sourcing is the process of purchasing materials that are directly used in the production of goods that the company is manufacturing. It includes all the items that are part of finished products produced by the company such as raw materials, components or parts, etc.

What are the differences between Direct and Indirect Procurement?

Procurement activities in an organization can typically be split into two – direct spend and indirect spend.

Direct Procurement deals with the purchase of materials and services needed for the manufacturing process of the company. For example, an Automotive company could source steel or electronics, or even powertrain components. It has a direct impact on a company’s profit, customer satisfaction, and overall performance.

Whereas, Indirect Procurement involves the purchase of goods and services needed for the day-to-day operations of the company. It ensures that the internal needs of the company and its employees are met. Typical examples are stationery, computers, services such as housekeeping or security etc.

What are the benefits of a Direct Material Sourcing or Direct Procurement Solution?

A direct material sourcing solution enables businesses to streamline the complex and multi-layered processes involved in Direct Materials Sourcing ranging from sourcing and analyzing multi-level Bill of Materials (BOM), eSourcing, cost optimization, and demand tracking to budget management and managing the supply base.

Benefits of a direct procurement solution:

• Product quality and compliance monitoring
• Improve speed to market
• Improve spend management through effective category management.

How can MeRLIN help in Direct Spend Management? 

MeRLIN helps organizations overcome the challenges associated with direct materials purchases. It helps procurement professionals identify sourcing needs from multiple sources like PLM, MRP, Requisitions from ERP, etc. It then consolidates demand across requisitions to maximize purchasing power. The collaborative platform helps break down the walls between engineering and sourcing departments and enhances collaboration with suppliers to convert them to strategic partners.

• Get access to accurate real-time data
• Improve collaboration with suppliers and other stakeholders
• Enhance engineering collaboration, manage complexity of bill of material versions with PLM integrations
• Gain Project/Program level visibility and savings analysis
• Get enabled to capture future price reductions and evaluate adherence to the same.
• Achieve seamless business process execution with end-to-end integration

How can I reduce Supplier Risks with MeRLIN?

MeRLIN can help you mitigate supplier risks mainly by ensuring the procurement organization is able to analyze, automate and streamline various aspects of Supplier Relationship Management.

• Supplier Diversification – Do detailed supplier spend analysis at individual as well as group level and ensure that no single supplier/supplier group has a dominance in your supply chain. You can also analyze your suppliers by region, country, etc to diversify your supply base or identify alternate sources in case of disruptions.
• Supplier Onboarding – Significantly speed up supplier registration and onboarding by enabling self-registration and document upload and verification. MeRLIN allows you to configure business rules to check supplier mandatory documentation or compliance documentation requirements by region.
• Supplier Management and Collaboration – The supplier management solutions in MeRLIN enable you to monitor supplier performance and collaborate effectively with them to build better partnerships.
• Supplier Audits and Assessments – Complete audits faster and expedite compliance-related activities. The automated compliance verifications avoid manual errors. Additionally, easily check how much sourcing is being done with non-preferred suppliers or low-rated suppliers.

Can MeRLIN Strategic Sourcing /Direct Procurement Solution software be integrated with other systems?

Yes, MeRLIN can be integrated with any ERP or your homegrown systems, PLM, CAD systems, etc.

Factsheet

Uncover meaningful insights from your sourcing data and trends that translates to new opportunities for savings and growth.