An Automotive Manufacturer Saves 16% on Indirect Spend with Amicus

Member Profile

An automotive manufacturer with a global footprint develops, markets, and sells premium automotive parts through a portfolio of nine market-leading brands, including brake solutions, filtration products, wiper blades, fuel and water pumps, spark plugs, and lift supports.

In 2020, following a strategic consolidation of legacy brands, the company set out to better understand and optimize its indirect materials spend. To achieve this, they partnered with Amicus, leveraging its years of expertise in source-to-pay services for indirect materials and services procurement.

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The Challenge

After acquiring several new brands and rebranding itself, the company needed to optimize the indirect materials spend of all its legacy brands. The company faced several challenges:

• Disparate systems
• Poor data quality
• A decentralized sourcing strategy

The company launched an RFP to find a provider capable of consolidating its vendor base and implementing a standardized Source-to-Pay strategy across its nine brands and 29 sites in the U.S. and Mexico. Their primary objectives were:

• Gain visibility into spend across all nine brands
• Consolidate the vendor base and standardize payment terms, ordering, invoicing, and reporting
• Achieve cost savings through competitive sourcing events after data was cleansed

After a thorough evaluation, Amicus was selected for its transparency and ability to integrate seamlessly with the client’s procurement, accounting, and IT teams, offering a new standard in indirect materials and facility services procurement.

An MSA was established, featuring:

• A consistent management fee across all transactions
• Standard payment terms across all transactions by country
• Standard invoicing processes
• Item-level reporting via Amicus’s on-demand dashboards
• A dedicated team of buyers led by an experienced Purchasing Manager

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How Amicus Helped

We worked with the client to implement a fast, multi-phase launch to minimize change management and align with other ongoing business transitions.

Phase 1: Rapid Transaction Processing and Purchase Transparency

• Amicus began by setting up the client’s top suppliers in its systems to streamline order processing.
• A $50K annual spend threshold helped determine which vendors to focus on for onboarding.
• We worked closely with each of the nine legacy companies to gather all necessary requisitioner, cost center, invoicing, and logistics data, ensuring quick shipping and visibility across all purchases.

Phase 2: Vendor Onboarding, Data Capture, and Item Record Creation

• Amicus onboarded hundreds of vendors, capturing item-level data, including manufacturer name, part numbers, and pricing.
• Vendors unable to provide historical item-level data agreed to provide it for future orders.
• The client and Amicus negotiated discounted pricing with vendors by highlighting the benefits of streamlining ordering and invoicing.
• “Go Live” for the first wave occurred within 10 weeks, with 80% of critical vendors onboarded.

Key Implementation Elements

• Executive sponsor from the client team
• Close collaboration between Amicus’s launch team and client subject matter experts in AP, Finance, Purchasing, Taxation, Logistics, and Operations
• Plant champions at each site to help navigate replenishment, payment, and internal processes
• Educating requisitioners on their role in data management and process optimization

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Results

Within the first year, Amicus achieved:

• 16% gross savings on managed spend where sourcing recommendations were implemented
• $1.27M in savings by reducing the client’s internal costs to manage suppliers
• 909 vendors set up and transacted with on the client’s behalf
• Vendor base consolidation
• Standardized payment terms across 615 suppliers, based on country
• Common order placement and invoice payment processes for a large portion of the spend
• 30,000 item-level master data records created, including manufacturer names and part numbers
• 30,000 RFQs, POs, and invoice lines processed

Amicus’s efforts not only improved sourcing, data quality, and vendor management, but also created substantial cost savings and efficiencies across the client’s operations.