How LeverX Helped Sky Chefs Gain Full Visibility and Control Over Procurement Spend

LeverX helped Sky Chefs centralize and standardize procurement, achieving full spend visibility, stronger supplier control, and more efficient, compliant purchasing across all locations.

Client

LSG Sky Chefs, the world’s leading airline catering provider, operates a highly complex “order-to-plane” supply chain. The company has more than 46 locations in the US, with over 1,800 business users involved in procurement activities as part of their day-to-day operations.

Challenge

Since Sky Chefs operates one of the most time-critical and complex supply chains, it manages perishable goods through the whole production cycle: preparation, packaging, and finally, delivery to aircraft — with no room for delays.

As a result of COVID-19, the company distributed its procurement operations across ~37 kitchens — a decentralization move driven by necessity. That change resulted in the following issues:

• Lack of spend visibility: There was no consolidated, real-time view of procurement across distributed locations, limiting cost analysis and reducing the ability to leverage company-wide purchasing power.
• Fragmented processes: Each location conducted purchases independently, leading to inconsistent workflows, reduced control, and operational inefficiencies.
• Compliance complexities: Uncontrolled buying behavior and low compliance with preferred suppliers led to off-contract spending and reduced cost optimization.
• Poor master data quality: The client encountered thousands of duplicate SKUs for identical items, making spend analysis, demand consolidation, and sourcing activities less efficient.
• Manual accounts payable processes: Invoice handling relied on a combination of PDF-based invoice processing (via Calpion) and manual processing in SAP ECC, leading to frequent mismatches between purchase orders, receipts, and invoices, increased workload, and slow invoice processing cycles.
• Limited supplier collaboration and transparency: Lack of real-time communication with suppliers decreased visibility into order status and limited the ability to respond quickly to supply chain disruptions.

At the same time, external disruptions (such as flight delays, cancellations, or weather conditions) required prompt, real-time responses, which legacy processes could not provide. 

Solution

LeverX performed a comprehensive transformation of the company’s procurement by implementing SAP Ariba. Based on the client’s requirements, our goals were to centralize operations, standardize processes, and enable full spend transparency across all locations.

The solution focused on establishing a controlled, scalable procurement framework.

Spend visibility enablement

Our team introduced a centralized procurement environment by consolidating data across all locations. This unification enabled real-time reporting and drill-down analytics by supplier, category, and cost center, giving Sky Chefs’ leadership full transparency and control over enterprise-wide spending.

Process standardization

A unified, end-to-end procurement process was designed and rolled out across all sites. This process encompassed requisitioning, approvals, purchase order creation, goods receipt, invoicing, and payment.

Standard workflows eliminated process variability and ensured consistent execution across all locations.

• Defined a structured Supplier onboarding → PR → PO → GR → Invoice → Payment flow
• Embedded approval workflows aligned with organizational policies and DOA (delegation of authority)
• Standardized procurement roles and responsibilities

Supplier management

Using SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle & Performance (SLP), we implemented a structured supplier management process to ensure consistent onboarding, qualification, and governance of suppliers across all locations.

• Enabled standardized supplier onboarding, including registration and data collection
• Implemented supplier qualification workflows to validate and approve vendors
• Established preferred supplier management to drive compliant purchasing and reduce off-contract spend
• Improved supplier data quality and consistency organization-wide

Catalog enablement and guided buying

SAP Ariba’s Guided Buying functionality was implemented to simplify the user experience while ensuring compliant purchasing behavior. Employees were allowed to purchase through approved channels using pre-configured catalogs.

• Enabled 8+ punchout catalogs (e.g., Amazon, Grainger)
• Reduced free-text and off-contract purchasing
• Improved user adoption through intuitive buying interfaces

Policy enforcement and compliance control

Procurement policies were embedded directly into the system through automated controls and approval logic, ensuring consistent compliance without manual oversight.

• Standardized supplier onboarding and qualification via SLP
• Recommended use of preferred suppliers
• Applied validation rules during requisition and ordering

Supplier collaboration via SAP Business Network

The solution extended procurement processes to suppliers through SAP Business Network, enabling real-time interaction and transaction visibility.

• Enabled electronic PO transmission and confirmation
• Provided real-time updates on delivery dates and quantities
• Supported the onboarding of diverse suppliers, including smaller vendors

Accounts Payable automation

Invoice processing was digitized and tightly integrated with procurement workflows, significantly reducing manual effort and errors.

• Implemented automated invoice validation and matching (3-way match)
• Enabled electronic invoicing via SAP Business Network
• Reduced exception handling and manual reconciliation

ERP integration and scalable architecture

The SAP Ariba solution was fully integrated with SAP ECC, ensuring seamless data flow between procurement and finance while maintaining a standardized and scalable system landscape.

• Integrated via SAP Integration Suite and Managed Gateway (CIG)
• Automated financial postings with accurate GL and cost center assignments
• Established a stable, future-ready architecture

Organizational change management

Organizational change management was led by the Sky Chefs team to ensure smooth adoption of new procurement processes and tools across all locations.

• Conducted onsite workshops and discussions to align stakeholders and communicate process changes
• Organized user onboarding and training sessions to support the adoption of SAP Ariba solutions
• Established a network of key users to drive local adoption and provide ongoing support
• Ensured consistent rollout of new processes and policies across all locations

Technology Stack

Procurement core: SAP Ariba Buying & Invoicing (B&I) with Guided Buying

SAP Ariba B&I serves as the central procurement solution, enabling end-to-end purchasing processes from requisition to invoice. Guided Buying provides a user-friendly, Fiori-like interface that standardizes purchasing behavior, enforces compliance, and simplifies procurement for both professional and occasional users.

Supplier management: SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle & Performance (SLP)

SAP Ariba SLP enables structured supplier onboarding, qualification, and lifecycle management. It ensures consistent supplier data, supports compliance through validation workflows, and provides a foundation for managing supplier performance and risk.

Supplier collaboration network: SAP Business Network

SAP Business Network facilitates real-time collaboration with suppliers by digitizing transactions, such as purchase orders, confirmations, and invoicing. It improves transparency, accelerates communication, and enables faster response to supply chain changes.

ERP backbone: SAP ECC

SAP ECC acts as the core backend system that manages accounting, controlling, and logistics processes. It ensures that procurement transactions are accurately recorded and aligned with financial data, supporting automated postings and end-to-end process integrity.

Integration layer: SAP Integration Suite with Managed Gateway (CIG)

SAP Integration Suite, including the Managed Gateway for Spend Management and SAP Business Network (CIG), enables secure and standardized integration between SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network, and SAP ECC. It ensures reliable, real-time data synchronization across procurement, supplier, and financial processes.

Catalog enablement: Punchout catalogs

Punchout catalogs integrate external supplier catalogs directly into the procurement process, allowing users to select pre-approved goods from supplier platforms such as Amazon and Grainger. This ensures compliant purchasing, improves user experience, and enhances data accuracy by reducing free-text entries.

Results

• Enterprise-wide spend transparency at scale: Achieved centralized visibility across ~46 locations and 1,800+ users, enabling consolidated reporting and detailed spend analysis spanning suppliers, categories, and cost centers.
• Procurement consistency across distributed operations: Aligned procurement execution across all locations, bringing unified processes and better control over purchases.
• Structured purchasing via catalogs: With 8 punchout catalogs, we increased the share of compliant purchases and reduced reliance on manual, unstructured ordering methods.
• Higher contract adherence and controlled purchasing behavior: Strengthened enforcement of preferred supplier usage and reduced off-contract transactions with embedded system controls and guided workflows.
• Faster, more transparent supplier interactions: Enabled real-time exchange of procurement documents with suppliers, improving order status visibility and reaction to operational changes.
• Streamlined invoice processing and reduced manual workload: Introduced automated invoice validation, leading to faster exception handling and invoice processing cycles.
• Robust foundation for scaling and further optimization: Established a clean, integrated procurement environment capable of supporting increased transaction volumes, supplier onboarding, and advanced supply chain capabilities.

Finally, Sky Chefs transformed procurement from a fragmented, decentralized function into a transparent, standardized, and automated system. This unlocked cost savings, operational efficiency, and full control over enterprise spend.