Partnering closely with our suppliers
We partner with suppliers who share our commitment to innovation and are willing to help us address some of the world’s most pressing health challenges.
To ensure our suppliers meet AbbVie’s quality, compliance and social responsibility requirements, we work closely with them. Not only do we communicate with our network of suppliers regularly, but also, we monitor and help them enhance their performance based on our well-defined, stringent metrics.
Supplier quality and dependability
We work closely with our suppliers to continually learn and improve. We conduct formal management reviews and performance audits to ensure that their materials meet our high expectations for technical specifications, quality and safety. We also help them improve their social responsibility programs and results.
We provide all AbbVie suppliers with our Supplier Code of Conduct. This Code outlines our expectations in the areas of ethical behavior, business integrity and fair competition, human rights, privacy, labor rights and worker protection, animal welfare, environmental stewardship and health and safety practices.
Supplier Social Responsibility Program
The mission for our Supplier Social Responsibility Program, which is part of the AbbVie Supplier Sustainability Program, is to evaluate new and existing suppliers to ensure they provide safe working conditions, dignified and respectful treatment of independent contractors, maintain environmentally responsible manufacturing processes, ethical practices and sufficient management systems.
To find what types of information we look for, take the Supplier Sustainability Survey. Plus, find AbbVie’s disclosure on the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act—Human Trafficking here.
For further information about AbbVie’s Supplier Social Responsibility Program, contact us at AbbVieSustainabilityProgram@abbvie.com.
Supplier Risk Management
To ensure continuous supply to our customers, we assess potential gaps and implement strategic action plans to mitigate product supply chain risk. We monitor the financial health of our suppliers and conduct quality compliance audits of third parties. We also work jointly with our critical suppliers to perform risk assessments, and where required, we support those suppliers in developing business continuity plans. In 2021, we went through a digital transformation and launched a new technology platform to enhance our programs and tools. This new platform allows us to evaluate risk across a number of critical domains, develop and implement risk mitigation plans, monitor our suppliers’ performance, and manage potential disruptions to our supply chain. This new platform, in coordination with Subject Matter Experts in various partner organizations within AbbVie, provides us with a broader line of sight into risks across the global supply chain on a real-time basis, offering 24/7 alerts to key decision-makers in vulnerable locations.
Supplier guidelines and resources
What we purchase
We purchase goods and services from more than 51,000 suppliers around the world, including, but not limited to, the following categories:
- Advertising
- Agricultural commodities
- Banking
- Biological products
- Capital equipment
- Chemical products
- Commercial services
- Computers/computer suppliers
- Construction
- Consulting
- Disposables
- Electronics energy/utilities
- Engineering services
- Financial
- Fleet vehicles/services
- Food services
- Fuels/lubricants
- Glass containers
- Health care professional (HCP) services
- Health care organizations (HCOs)
- Human resources (HR)
- Injection-molded parts
- IT/telecom services
- Janitorial/laundry services
- Landscaping/paving/blacktopping
- Legal services
- Logistics/transportation services
- Machined parts
- Market research
- Metal fabrication
- Maintenance, repair, operations (MRO) supplies
- Meetings and events
- Needles/cannulas
- Office supplies/services
- Packaging/supplies/labels
- Pest control/waste removal
- Printing
- Professional services
- Public relations (PR)Safety supplies
- Scheduled drugs/specially denatured alcohols (SDA)
- Third-party manufacturing
- Training
- Transportation/delivery
- Vehicle maintenance
Supplier expectations
The Supplier Code of Conduct provides in-depth detail about beginning and managing a relationship with AbbVie. Our suppliers are required to read and agree to the supplier code of conduct contained therein, which make our expectations clear in a variety of areas
- Ethical behavior
- Business integrity and fair competition
- Human rights
- Privacy
- Labor rights and worker protection
- Animal welfare
- Environmental stewardship
- Health and safety practices
New Supplier Onboarding & Training
Registration and approval as a supplier are required for doing business with us. To make registration as straightforward as possible, we’ve partnered with SAP Ariba to provide a portal for would-be suppliers. The link to the Ariba Network portal is included in the email inviting you to register.
During the registration process, you’ll create an Ariba Network account. This account provides access to the portal and your registration questionnaire. You may save a draft of your registration questionnaire at any point - log in to your Ariba Network account to complete and submit your registration later. Control over who has access to the portal is yours – you can add users and create roles to allow different users different access.
After being approved to be an AbbVie supplier, use the portal to maintain your information. Change of address? New contact person? New bank account? No problem – log in to your Ariba Network account and make the change to your AbbVie registration, and we’ll take it from there.
Ready to get started? We’ve created two documents to guide you – the Quick Start Guide to AbbVie Supplier Registration and the Ariba Portal User Guide for Suppliers.
Ariba Portal User Guide for Suppliers – A complete guide to creating your Ariba Network account, adding users, creating roles, and assigning roles to your Ariba Network users. The guide also covers completing your AbbVie registration form and maintaining your AbbVie registration over time.
View the Ariba Portal User Guide for Suppliers here.
Quick Start Guide - This simplified guide covers two tasks 1) creating your SAP Ariba Network account and 2) completing your AbbVie registration.
View the Quick Start Guide here.
Supplier Diversity Program
Our Supplier Diversity Program covers North America and is a crucial part of the competitiveness in our supply chain. AbbVie’s small business/supplier diversity policy ensures that we provide equal opportunities for small and diverse-owned businesses. Working with our supplier diversity leader, our on-site supplier diversity champions provide oversight, monitor spend and facilitate diverse supplier development activities. AbbVie requests that suppliers register via a portal so that our procurement teams can access information across AbbVie locations.
Currently, AbbVie tracks spend with the following suppliers with the following ownership classifications:
Small businesses, which include:
- Veteran-owned
- Service-disabled veteran-owned
- Women-owned
- Minority-owned
- Small disadvantaged, 8(a)
- Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone)
- Alaska Native Corporations (ANC)/Indian tribes
- Nonprofits
Diverse businesses with third-party certifications, which include:
- National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)
- Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified Women Business Enterprises (WBE)
- National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) certified Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Businesses
- Disability:IN
Outreach and advocacy activities
AbbVie representatives participate in local, regional and national matchmaking events, trade fairs and conferences where suppliers are given the opportunity to discuss their products and services in person with one of our purchasing team members. A few of these events include:
- Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council (CMSDC) Chicago Business Opportunity Fair (CBOF)
- Puerto Rico Minority Supplier Development Council (PRMSDC) Opportunity Fair
- National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)
- Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)
- Diversity Alliance For Science (DA4S)
- Elite Service-Disabled Veteran Conference
- National Veteran Small Business Conference
Getting started
Registration with AbbVie is a prerequisite for doing business with us. Once you register, your business’s information will be available to AbbVie category managers across North America through our portal, ensuring your firm will be considered for applicable RFIs or RFPs in a timely, efficient fashion. Registration with AbbVie does not guarantee business; however, it does increase the chances of your business being reviewed by the appropriate persons on our procurement team.
We’ve developed a user-friendly, easy-to-use portal for registration. If you have any questions during the registration process, call the help desk number provided within the tool. You can also request additional help and information at any time in the process by contacting Supplierdiversity@abbvie.com.