Strategic Purchasing Consultants - Typical Category Purchasing Benefits
Executive Interims' purchasing consultants can typically deliver between 15-35% for a particular category of expenditure.
Strategic Purchasing Case Study: Pan-European Packaging
Client: Global FMCG Business Team: Small client led multi-disciplinary core team and numerous decentralised purchasing stakeholders at plant level Client's requirement for purchasing consultants expertise included:
- Management of a packaging category
- Strategic purchasing methodology & e-Sourcing
- Formal project management systems (e.g. PRINCE 2)
- Multi-cultural & multi-lingual capability
- FMCG industry experience an advantage
Purchasing consultants provided by Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice:
- Packaging category purchasing specialist
- Packaging design specialist
Actions:
- Diagnostic & pan-European spend validation
- Supply chain re-engineering of key sub-category
- Value analysis / value engineering (VA/VE)
- Consolidation & renegotiation
- e-Sourcing (including reverse auctions) of key sub-categories
Key Challenges:
- Supplier oligopoly for key sub-category
- Developing constructive working relationships with decentralised purchasing stakeholders at pan-European plants
- Pack variety
Benefits:
- Savings of $ 4m per annum (mostly double digit % savings)
- Demonstrated clear benefits of centralising packaging purchasing without disenfranchising decentralised stakeholders at plant level
- Built platform to give purchasing a greater role in packaging development
Benefits From Using A Strategic Purchasing Consultant
Our strategic procurement consultants will always represent better value for your investment compared to a "Big Four" firm, either by virtue of their additional expertise or their lower total cost. That's because from time to time the "Big Four" consultancy firms de-layer their senior and middle management.
It's not untypical for say Directors, Executive Consultants and Managing Consultants specialising in purchasing / procurement within the big practices, to take golden parachutes and then make themselves available as purchasing consultants through Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice. This means that not only do our purchasing consultants understand "best practise" strategic purchasing intellectual property, they have a greater depth and breadth of consultancy expertise than many of their younger former colleagues, and (just as importantly) more finely honed interpersonal skills, because, sometimes younger purchasing consultants lack some of the tact and diplomacy that come with a few more years' experience.
Expenses can often be overlooked when purchasing consultants are selected, but these are unlikely to be missed when the invoices arrive. Purchasing consultants from "Big Four" firms will expect to stay at the Marriott or the Hilton and you'll get a sizeable invoice for the various trips on planes, trains and automobiles, whereas Executive Interims' purchasing consultants are more likely to use their own car and stay at the local Travel Inn.
Strategic Purchasing Methodologies
Purchasing consultants use strategic purchasing methodologies, which are broken down into distinct phases. Some firms of purchasing consultants use seven phase methodologies, some five phases etc, but below we've shown a four phase methodology (in outline only).
Phase 1 Diagnostic (4-8 weeks)
- Launch Preparation
- Stakeholder Communication
- Documenting the Spend
- Segmenting the Spend
- Supplier Conference
Key Deliverables:
- Savings Opportunities
- Priorities
- Programme Plan
Phase 2 Purchasing Strategy (8-12 weeks)
- Research (cost breakdowns & drivers, low factor cost supply industries, commercial balance of power etc.)
- Analysis
- Develop Sourcing Strategies
- Develop Technology Strategies (new product/process technologies, value analysis, value engineering etc.)
Key Deliverables:
- Sourcing Strategies
- Technology Strategies
Phase 3 Supplier Engagement (12-16 weeks)
- Sourcing Engagement
- Technical Engagement
- Formalise Contractual Relationships
Key Deliverables:
- Negotiated Contracts
- Quick Hits
Phase 4 Implementation of Purchasing Strategy (12-16 weeks)
- Supplier Qualification
- Product Qualification
- Supply Migration
- Benefits Tracking
Key Deliverables:
- Implemented Strategies
- Cost Savings
Our purchasing consultants use formal change management procedures to ensure that deliverables are indeed delivered on time and to budget, without any nasty surprises.
Other examples where Executive Interims' strategic procurement consultants can add significant value are shown in our Procurement Consultants article.
Advantages of Executive Interims - Strategic Purchasing Consultants
Executive Interims' - purchasing consultants can be in a client's business within days of an enquiry and bring with them a lot of objectivity - and no political baggage. The approach can be particularly valuable when there's a need to bring in some additional resource to address a high profile / value / risk category of expenditure, particularly if the existing team is fully utilised.
Traditional purchasing approaches tend to leap from the Diagnostic (Phase 1) into Engagement with suppliers (Phase 3), often neglecting anything more than a superficial look at the all important research, analysis and strategy development (Phase 2), which is where the expertise of purchasing consultants is of particular importance. It is within this phase that the opportunities for using suppliers who have more cost advantaged manufacturing processes, or who can provide product technologies which generate greater added value or cost reductions are systematically identified.
Not only do Executive Interims' purchasing consultants bring with them the most up to date strategic purchasing intellectual property, they also bring a formal approach to change management and are highly focused on deadlines and deliverables.
Our purchasing consultants aren't looking for permanent roles - so they're non- threatening and are visibly expert practitioners who quickly take the ownership, implement the solution & hand you the cheque. In short they specialise in delivering results not just recommendations
A Strategic Purchasing Consultant From Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice
In addition to providing interim management services, Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice provides clients with consultants formerly from "Big Four" consultancy firms, including:
Looking for Strategic Purchasing Consultants?
Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice
is a specialist provider of supply chain consulting and interim management services. If you'd like to know more about what our purchasing or procurement consultants could do for your business, contact us to explore the subject further.
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