Challenges
The major challenges were identifying alternative suppliers in the marketplace (which were not found previously) and looking for potential new technologies or opportunities to reduce costs in each category. Another challenge was maintaining suppliers in the region to manage landed costs, including logistics, duties and tariffs, while also finding suppliers who could meet certain paint and company specific assembly requirements.
Approach
Claudia’s 7-Step Sourcing Process allowed the client team to be methodological in their approach and mitigate personal bias regarding the categories and suppliers. Some major achievements from utilizing the process included:
When the team began Analyzing the RFPs the team identified alternate processes for current parts to help reduce costs and improve quality. This included switching parts currently produced in one molding process to another, more efficient, molding process
Through Site Visits the team identify some key strategic advantages of suppliers they were previously unaware of. This included new types of material development and vertically integrated processes to improve quality and reduce costs. This was previously unknown to the client.
Supplier Selection resulted in the team bringing on new suppliers to increase category competitiveness and provide alternate options for parts in region that were previously unavailable.
Results
The team identified and established strategic partners with competitive advantages in multiple key categories. One major success was identifying a new SMC supplier with their own sheet production line to help with continuity of supply and maintain competitiveness in the evolving marketplace. Additionally, new suppliers were found in sub-categories such as Rotomolding which previously were at an impasse. The category achieved an average of 6% savings across all sub-categories
