a) Your current suppliers – the experience and knowledge that resides in the heads of their quality experts, engineers, and operations management can be invaluable. They have been exposed to a wide range of processes and manufacturing practices that their other customers employ. They know a lot about the world outside your organization. A savvy procurement professional taps into these resources, often by organizing and managing joint savings projects.
b) Global procurement consultants - In today’s global marketplace, it is difficult for anyone, or any one company, to stay abreast of all available suppliers, their capabilities, and individual strengths and weaknesses. For many products groups, especially high labor content ones or ones requiring intensive investment in technology (like electronics), using a competent global consultant to create a shortlist and even manage the bidding process can lead to the best cost solution.
c) Your own engineers and product designers - Savvy procurement professionals organize and manage internal ‘continuous improvement’ projects aimed at reducing costs of purchased components and products. Examples include down-gauging to reduce raw materials, simplifying design to improve supplier production rates, and order quantity optimization to minimize set-ups and minimize packaging and freight costs. Focusing on projects that can be initiated and controlled internally (i.e., do not require coordination with outside resources) is a tried-and-true best practice for achieving cost savings.