Companies can achieve considerable savings by retendering entire product groups. A German food manufacturer reorganised the procurement of its buckets with external support. The service went far beyond mere price negotiations.
Up to 20 per cent Savings through optimised procurement processes with at least the same, and often better, product quality: this is the service provided by the Austrian Huber Einkauf GmbH & Co. KG their customers. The Tyrolean company has specialised in supporting companies in the packaging market, among others, by conducting intensive market and demand analyses, using its own tendering processes and providing expert advice during the purchasing process. The potential offered by this service was recently demonstrated by Huber Einkauf during the reorganisation of the Bucket procurement of a German spice manufacturer.
The Family business with more than 900 employees, had already utilised the support of the Huber experts for the purchase of cardboard packaging. As a follow-up to this project, it was decided to organise the Procurement of the buckets. This was combined with the changeover from uniformly white to coloured buckets.
The re-tendering of a specific Product group at Huber Einkauf is always preceded by a thorough analysis of the current situation. This was also the case for the German food manufacturer. The products used to date, the existing supplier relationships and the previous ordering process were analysed.
Advantages through bundling the purchasing volume
Once this information was available, one of the centrepieces of Huber Einkauf's services was launched: the tendering process. To do this, the Alpine company uses existing information as well as its own web-based Tendering platform, in which the detailed invitation to tender will be published. Potential suppliers have previously been invited to participate. They can apply for the tendered contracts after submitting a large amount of information in advance in the form of a „holistic portfolio analysis“. The advantage of this solution: Information on a broad selection of suppliers is available in a bundled and comparable form.
The Huber consultants selected a few suppliers from the tender documents received and held detailed discussions with them. In close consultation with the customer, the decision to change supplier was finally made. The buckets previously used were compared with those of the new supplier. To do this, Huber Purchasing utilised its own development department for Packaging back. In addition, large-scale tests were carried out with sample buckets at the customer's premises as well as transport tests.
The new supply contract was only signed once all these tests had been successfully completed. Huber Einkauf subsequently became involved in the operational handling of the Change of supplier, which was gradually integrated into the company's processes.
According to Huber Einkauf, optimised procurement processes such as the one just described exemplify the advantages of this method. Through the thorough Market screening the customer has gained a precise overview of the price situation. The use of the Huber tendering platform resulted in better purchasing conditions. As a result, the envisaged savings targets were achieved. Finally, the involvement of the company's own packaging developers also increased product quality.
