Material management providing best value to TransAlta Utilities

Materials management functions at TransAlta Utilities were outlined in several overhead viewgraphs. The system includes purchasing, contracts, fleet management, inventory control and warehouses management. Various components of the system are depicted, including: (1) integrated information system, (2) materials management (MM) process flow, (3) key suppliers, (4) commodity categories, (5) performance evaluation process, (6) new ways of working with service suppliers, (7) location of staff in the field and head office, (8) contracts, (9) tracking key performance indicators, (10) blocked invoice performance, and (11) warehouse optimization and inventory control. Current initiatives are being reviewed with a view to reduce operations to a single service centre, based on the corporate objective to increase the value of MM by 20 per cent by the year 2000. 3 tabs., 4 figs