NIMA, Norwegian Association of Purchasing and Logistics, was founded in 1915, as the first of its kind in the world.
NIMA-Dagene is Norway’s major event for purchasers and logistics professionals. This year’s event was the 20th in a row, and it offered about 150 participants a professionally strong program, but also contained elements of a more general nature.
The speakers discussed a number of topics; top management involvement in purchasing; purchasing as a competitive tool, Kraft Foods experience with e-tools for reverse auctions, among others.
Key-note speaker Neil A Deverill is director purchasing for the South Africa-based company, Anglo American, employing 135,000 people world wide. His main message was that we are competing also in procurement, in the supplier market, and that procurement should be able to provide a sustainable competitive advantage to a company or organisation. This requires competence that is not always found in the purchasing department.
In Norway, a new appeal board for public procurement became operational on the 1st of January this year. The leader of the board gave an overview of how the board operates and the experiences so far. Public procurement in Norway amounts to about 27 Billion, so this is of major interest to suppliers in all areas.
Staale Hansen, director purchasing at Heidelberg Cement, told the audience how his company works to make procurement a driving force in creating added value in the organisation. A major point is how to organise the work and the people involved throughout the world, as Heidelberg has factories in more than 50 countries.
An important part of NIMA-Dagene is the banquet on the first night, and the network building this makes possible. With more than 100 guests, this event was a major success, and the gathering lasted till after midnight. In a ceremony at the dinner, the prestigious ‘NIMA-Prize’ was awarded to Fred W Graham. The jury emphasised Graham’s many years of engagement in NIMA, and his work for the profession of logistics and purchasing.
