Achilles has been appointed by FirstGroup, a leading private sector provider of public transport, and the largest rail operator in the UK, to deliver a comprehensive solution enhancing existing supply chain risk and supplier management processes. This solution will be implemented across both the Bus and Rail divisions including the entities of First Bus, Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Hull Trains and Lumo.

“FirstGroup is a major player in the UK transport industry, and I am delighted that they have selected Achilles to deliver this transformative procurement programme across the Group. Working in partnership, we will be able to deliver data and insights that will create consistency and raise standards across the complex supply chains spanning all the Group companies. In turn, this will reduce the time to market via FirstGroup’s procurement policy and enhance access to extensive pre-qualification information – a key objective of the Group’s Procurement function,” said Katie Ferrier, Senior Vice President Customer Engagement & Quality Assurance, Achilles.

The Achilles solution will provide FirstGroup with access to “MyAchilles” and “Insights” which enable cross company reporting and access to supplier financial data and key compliance information covering aspects of safety, quality, cyber security, environment and wider CSR information as well as a robust qualification system route to shortlisting suppliers for procurement opportunities.

“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and our suppliers and supply chains make it possible for us to help them travel with confidence. FirstGroup’s commitment to customers and dedication to safety and performance must be at the heart of every decision we make, and we strive for continuous improvement across all of our processes in support of this. With reliance on thousands of suppliers to enable the delivery of our services across both the Rail and Bus sectors we recognise our unavoidable exposure to supply chain risk,” commented Tom Jolly, Procurement Governance & Capability Manager, FirstGroup.

“In partnership with Achilles, we aim to enhance our existing capability across supplier management and the wider procurement process. With centralised collection, maintenance and analysis of supplier data built into a comprehensive qualification platform we will gain a more holistic view of our supply chain risk. This will enable us to proactively focus our resource and work in collaboration with our suppliers, as part of our procurement strategy, to develop a more sustainable supply chain as well as increasing the agility of procurement across the Group.”