A case study of RMResearch Consulting's procurement and sourcing intelligence solutions utilized by a building materials firm

Business Difficulty

Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) of a UK-based building materials company was one of our clients. He was having trouble readjusting the procurement strategy to the parent company while maintaining cost-effectiveness throughout the combined businesses.

Research Methodology

It was our duty to provide an expedient appraisal of supplier data in order to offer discernibility of the existing supply chain, as well as insights into the procurement processes and expenses.

Obtaining the necessary data posed a significant issue since we needed the spend and contract details from each category manager. Since these facts were dispersed, it was unable to classify important factors like greatest spend regions, contracted spend, compliances, etc.

Results

With the help of our methodology, which eliminated noise from the data and provided relevant data for the client's goals and KPIs, the procurement function of the firm was represented overall. The major findings, such as spend by transaction value, by commodity, by suppliers, by sourcing managers, et cetera, were presented using visualization tools.

We recommended:

  • Adjustments to the procurement cycle that will improve supplier relations and procurement processes.
  • Creating a commodity heat map in order to save money.
  • Reorganizing spend categories and making structural adjustments to the procurement team.

Value Addition

  • Our study findings served as the foundation for a new category management plan that gave our client's procurement department a more strategic role.
  • The data and analysis process offered the customer a futuristic model that allowed for better management and planning in the long run as well as the identification of short-term activities because it could be updated and scaled up.