Procurement, Supply Chain & Logistics · Business Consulting · Managed Services · Custom Software & AI Development
A procurement operation rebuilt in five months — 60% lower to run, 20% average savings on renegotiated contracts
A US manufacturer needed a procurement function that could grow with the business rather than constrain it — running across two ERPs at once. We built a dedicated team in Hyderabad, rebuilt the processes around it, and went live in five months.
60%
Lower cost to run procurement
avg 20%
Average reduction in material costs on renegotiated contracts
~40%
Faster procurement cycle
5 months
From start to go-live
The problem
What they were dealing with
In manufacturing, procurement is not a back-office function. If a part does not arrive, the line stops — and the cost of that is measured in far more than the price of the part.
Our client was buying from hundreds of suppliers and vendors across multiple time zones, through processes that had grown up over years rather than being designed. Two ERPs were in play: SAP alongside MFG/PRO, each holding part of the picture, each configured to this business rather than out of the box. Supplier relationships were managed case by case. Inventory problems surfaced late, usually when somebody noticed rather than when a system flagged it. Executives had no consolidated view of what was being bought, from whom, or where the risk sat.
None of that was unusual. What made it pressing was growth. The same processes that were coping at current volume were not going to hold as the business scaled, and adding people to them in their existing shape would have multiplied the cost without touching the cause.
Constraints
What made it hard, and what we did about it
- Challenge
- Procurement is load-bearing. A supply failure stops production, so the transition could not disrupt the operation it was replacing
- What we did
- Phased approach — full discovery and workflow mapping before any change, then a month of validation before go-live
- Result
- No disruption to manufacturing during transition
- Challenge
- Two ERPs, not one. Each held part of the process, both configured to this business, with the handoffs between them undocumented
- What we did
- Mapped both installations and the seams between them — where a process crossed systems, and what the data did on the way
- Result
- The team understood the real environment, not two products in isolation
- Challenge
- Knowledge transfer usually slips. It depends on client staff finding time to explain their own jobs
- What we did
- Built questionnaires, training materials and validation documents up front; drove the sessions ourselves
- Result
- Learning curve compressed, with no data points lost
- Challenge
- Suppliers sit across every time zone. A question that waits overnight is a shipment that waits overnight
- What we did
- Assigned named owners by area of responsibility with a structured handover between shifts, maintaining round-the-clock channels
- Result
- Delays caught before they reached manufacturing
- Challenge
- Switching suppliers is expensive in regulated manufacturing. Requalifying a part is slow, so savings had to come without changing vendors
- What we did
- Put negotiation specialists inside the team to renegotiate terms with existing vendors
- Result
- 20% average material cost reduction, no requalification
How it ran
The sequence
We took it in phases, deliberately. Procurement sits at the center of a manufacturing business, and a transition that breaks it is worse than no transition at all.
Month 1
Discovery, across both ERPs
Before proposing anything, we mapped how buying actually worked — the workflows, the data behind them, and every connection point into the surrounding systems. ERP systems are configured differently in every organization, so knowing the product is not the same as knowing the installation. Two installations meant learning two, plus the seams between them.
Months 2–3
Knowledge transfer, run as a project
Most transitions depend on the client's own people finding time to explain their jobs, and most slip because that time never appears. We built questionnaires, training materials and workflow validation documents up front, and drove the sessions ourselves rather than waiting to be taught. Scheduling flexed entirely around the client's availability, including outside their normal hours.
Months 3–4
Process rebuild
Procurement rebuilt around supplier and vendor relationship management, earlier visibility of inventory issues, and a defined path for escalating potential problems before they became actual ones. Executive dashboards gave leadership a live view of the operation for the first time.
Month 4
The team in place
Procurement specialists, buyers, planners and logistics staff in Hyderabad, dedicated to this client. Every major area of responsibility has a named owner who is the point of contact for both the client's stakeholders and the suppliers in their area, with a disciplined handover of state between shifts.
Month 5
Validation, then go-live
A full month of testing before anyone relied on it — our team working the real processes against the real systems until we were confident. Four months of discovery, training and implementation, then one month proving it.
Results
What it produced
60%
Lower cost to run procurement
Against the cost of the function it replaced
avg 20%
Average reduction in material costs on renegotiated contracts
Averaged across the contracts renegotiated with existing vendors — no switching, no requalification.
~40%
Faster procurement cycle
Requisition to order placed, and order to delivery
5 months
From start to go-live
Four months discovery, training and implementation, plus one month validation
The three numbers come from different places, which is why they hold together. The operating cost reduction comes from a dedicated team working rebuilt processes with the manual handling taken out. The material savings come from renegotiating with vendors the client was already using — the kind of work that rarely gets done because nobody has the time, and which pays for itself immediately when someone does. The cycle-time gain comes from the process redesign and the automation underneath it.
For a manufacturer, the material savings are likely the largest of the three in absolute terms. Material spend dwarfs the cost of the team doing the buying.
The operation is also covered around the clock, which in a business where a late shipment stops a production line is the part that pays for itself. And procurement now scales with the business rather than against it — more suppliers and higher volume no longer mean proportionally more people.
What the client gained
Beyond the numbers
A team, not a contract
Procurement specialists, buyers, planners and logistics staff dedicated to this client and working as part of their organization.
Negotiation built in
20% average material savings, with no supplier switching and no requalification.
Visibility for leadership
Dashboards replacing a function that previously had to be asked about.
Automation where it pays
Routine work handled automatically, so the team's time goes to the buying rather than the admin around it.
Problems surfaced early
A defined path for raising potential issues with stakeholders before they become actual ones.
Headroom
Processes built for the volume the business is growing into, not the volume it had.
Reference
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