The situation
A $1B-spend packaging manufacturer built by acquisition, operating across five business units. Purchasing was transactional. There was no strategic sourcing or category management team to drive value or build engagement across the business units, and no source-to-contract system.
Commodity headwinds were eating into margin.
What we did
The focus was building in-house capability, not renting it.
- Built a spend cube and completed a diagnostic by working through the key stakeholders in each business unit
- Built a quick-win program, alongside a mid to long-term plan addressing $200M of spend
- Recruited two additional FTE to speed up execution
- Sourced and implemented a fit-for-purpose source-to-contract tool to get sourcing activity moving
Where the savings landed
~$20M in savings in year one of operations, delivered by activating a fit-for-purpose operating model. Documented against the P&L and signed off by the client's finance team. Reverse auctions ran across indirect categories.
What stayed behind
A team that grew to 2.5 experienced resources and two graduates in seven months, and a source-to-contract tool that went from selection to the first sourcing event in eight weeks.