Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
target score set for all suppliers. Light grey represents the scores achieved; dark
grey represents targets set by Spier.
For Spier as a whole, averages for each category across suppliers could also be
aggregated, or disaggregated by type of enterprise.
The aim of the capture tool was to allow 'apples for apples' comparisons to be
made. But it became clear that in terms of very small suppliers, this was not possi-
ble. Small suppliers (judged by Spier to be those with less than 20 employees), did
not have the resources to contribute in a significant manner to BBBEE agree-
ments and activities, were generally not able to contribute significantly to
Corporate Social Investment programmes and, by law, were not expected to
comply with employment equity legislation. So as not to penalize these suppliers,
percentage scores were adjusted so that the score achieved was assessed out of 38
not 45.
The first 27 replies were entered into a database and the capture tool tested.
The results were debated within Spier with buyers and management, and fine
tuning was made so that scores would most accurately reflect the actual perform-
ance of suppliers. The process was then initiated in full.
The next challenge was getting a sufficient number of replies with usable
data. Spier needed responses from a large percentage of suppliers, in order to get
a true picture of its own supply chain. However, this took longer than expected.
Some suppliers were intimidated by the questions. Other national South African
BEE processes were running at the time, and the Spier process was often
confused with this process. A factor causing considerable delay was that surveys
were returned with data that was not in the form that Spier required. Some were
rejected because information reported was inadequate, not in the format of the
questionnaire, or only the positive information about the organization was
reported. Some larger organizations returned information only in accordance
with their own standard categories or within their own documents, such as
Annual Reports. This information was generally reporting only on compliance
with legal requirements (such as the Employment Equity Act, the Basic
Conditions of Employment Act or the Labour Relations Act) or some voluntary
commitment such as Corporate Social Investment, but ignored other parts of the
survey. These were rejected as incomplete and suppliers were asked to revise
their replies.
There were a number of suspicions about the process which had to be allayed,
such as that it would:
test only the black ownership of Spier suppliers;
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•
•
seek ways, through the survey process, to eliminate existing suppliers;
•
test only environmental/green actions of the suppliers;
•
be simply an academic exercise requiring input time and then not be used as a
strategic tool by management;
•
be a foil behind which Spier could hide due to its own management and
ownership structures.
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