Case study: How Wincor Nixdorf promotes supply chain responsibility

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2015/2016 Sustainability Report Wincor Nixdorf identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, product responsibility, compliance, environmentally friendly products and services, occupational health and safety. Among these, promoting supply chain responsibility stands out as a key material issue for Wincor Nixdorf.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Wincor Nixdorf engages with:   

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Wincor Nixdorf carries out regular dialogues, workshops and conferences with its stakeholders.

What actions were taken by Wincor Nixdorf to promote supply chain responsibility?

In its 2015/2016 Sustainability Report Wincor Nixdorf reports that it took the following actions for promoting supply chain responsibility:

• Carefully selecting suppliers
• In order to ensure consistent standards for the selection of suppliers, Wincor Nixdorf has defined mandatory purchasing processes for the entire Group and has reached a level of standardisation that makes sure all its global suppliers meet the same demanding criteria. Before doing business with new suppliers, Wincor Nixdorf checks that their compliance, financial, quality, and environmental management systems meet the relevant standards (for example, ISO 9001 and 14001). This procedure is designed to check the extent to which suppliers can meet Wincor Nixdorf’s sustainability requirements. Wincor Nixdorf does not place orders with new suppliers, until it has checked that they meet the specified criteria and have been awarded a positive rating.

• Employing purchasing experts
• Wincor Nixdorf employs purchasing experts for certain categories of input materials. Their task is to draw up purchasing strategies that take into consideration market information on technology trends, as well as assessments of supplier capacity and performance. Wincor Nixdorf has made further improvements to the purchasing process by assigning clear roles and responsibilities to those involved, and distinguishes between employees with specific responsibilities, those providing information and those whose function is to approve purchases. Additionally, Wincor Nixdorf made further changes to its contract management system, to increase the level of standardisation. Suppliers have to accept certain legally binding responsibilities, such as complying with Wincor Nixdorf’s Code of Conduct, the specifications imposed by certified management systems (quality and environmental), and the environmental agreement they sign with Wincor Nixdorf.

• Carrying out supplier audits
• Supplier audits are a key element of Wincor Nixdorf’s quality management system. Among other aspects, they include an evaluation of production processes, quality management, and handling of core compliance issues relating to work, health and safety, the environment, ethics, and management. To date, none of Wincor Nixdorf’s suppliers has breached its Code of Conduct. In large part, this is because Wincor Nixdorf takes a very responsible and well-informed approach to selection, while nurturing established business relationships and making sure information is exchanged transparently. Every year, staff from Wincor Nixdorf’s Logistics, Quality, Finance, Technology, and Service units come together for a series of joint workshops, in order to rate suppliers. Together, they examine every aspect of suppliers’ performance and agree on specific measures for improvement.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria

2) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria

Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Labor practices in the supply chain
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Wincor Nixdorf, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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