Improving procurement’s value contribution

Many procurement departments are facing tough challenges when it comes to the procurement of raw materials due to highly volatile markets and partly non-influenceable prices of listed goods. Smart know-how and profound expertise make up the two key factors for the successful procurement of raw materials.

Among others, we’ve optimized the following raw materials for our clients:

• Agricultural raw materials (e.g. strawberries, maiz/corn, wheat)
• Chemical raw materials (e.g. Alkyl-D-glucopyranose, ammonia, sodium laureate sulphate (SLS), phosphoric acid)
• Industrial metals (e.g. aluminium, iron, steel)
• Plastics (e.g. polycarbonate, PVC, SAN)

Packaging has long since been identified as a driver of sales on the distribution end of the supply chain.

On the other end, in procurement, potential savings have far too often not been realized thus far. However, in many cases, packaging accounts for a big part of a company’s  entire procurement volume. Savings in these categories of goods thus have a major impact on procurement success.

In the packaging sector, we’ve successfully optimized the following categories of goods for our customers:

• Foils
• Cardboards (solid fiberboard and corrugated board)
• Labels
• Preforms
• Covers/Closures
• Blisters
• Bottles
• Canistesr
• Glass

Very often, the procurement volume for indirect material is highly fragmented. Yet, this seemingly unimportant volume accounts for a big part of the entire procurement volume, if viewed as a whole. That’s why the optimization of this procurement volume has a substantial impact on the company’s profit.

Among others, we’ve optimized the following category groups for our customers:

• Work clothes/office materials
• Vehicle fleets
• MRO goods (maintenance, repair and operations)
• IT hardware
• Advertising materials
• Tools

For many purchasers, the procurement of services is seen as a red rag. High demands from the respective business department in combination with unclear specifications regarding the service make it hard to compare the different service providers. Through the use of smart methods, even the optimization of supposedly difficult category groups can be a success.

We have, among others, successfully optimized the following category groups for our customers:

• Cleaning services
• Consulting and revision
• Business trips
• Marketing services (e.g. creative, event and media agencies)
• Telecommunications
• Temporary work
• Transportation services (e.g. road, sea, air)