Analysis and validation of alloys steel price trends; ArvinMeritor Co.

Abstract

Summer Internship at ArvinMeritor was for a period of 8 weeks, from the 29th of March, 2010 to the 21st of May, 2010. During this period, I was posted at the Global Procurement & Technical centre in Bangalore. The procurement centre in Bangalore procures steel and other commodities from Indian suppliers. There are two functional teams viz. Procurement team and Supplier Development team, which are involved in the sourcing process. The procurement team deals with Pricing, Contracts, Delivery issues etc., whereas the supplier development team deals with supplier risk assessment, supplier development etc. I was associated with Procurement team, wherein the project that I was staffed on, dealt with the pricing related to sourcing of alloy-steel commodities. The sub-modules that were allotted to me were related to analysis of alloy steel pricing and dealt with the following: • Comparative analysis of prices by different suppliers • Validation of pricing and Effect of alloy steel composition on the prices • Development of pricing and forecasting model for alloy steel commodities. The approach and overall project and its modules will be discussed in more detail in the next section on "Project Description". Overall, the internship was well structured, with the right amount of feedback and training interspersed in the program. The internship experience can be broadly divided as follows. 1. Orientation: The first two days of the program were utilized for orientation, during which I was given the overview of ArvinMeritor business in the world as well as in India. 2. Overview about Global Procurement: After the general orientation, I was introduced to Procurement and Pricing policies along with the Indian supplier profiles. In addition, I have been briefed about the manufacturing process details and base metal exchange which were quite helpful for the process of pricing of steel commodities. 3. Project: This was the main phase of the project which involved development of pricing and forecasting model based on technical inputs about the manufacturing processes. followed for alloy steel, taking into consideration the effect of alloy steel composition and variation in base metal prices based on global price indices. The daily feedback and interaction with the project guide helped in ensuring about what was expected from us, and also to lend direction to our work ahead. 4. Conclusion: This was the final leg of internship which consisted of final overview of the pricing model developed, report presentation and recommendations about the same.