The procurement team at PPI, a manufacturer of industrial conveyor components, knew they were leaving money on the table.
The company more than quadrupled in size over a decade, but retained many of the practices of a much smaller operation. Manufacturing locations were making independent purchasing decisions from local suppliers with little enterprise-wide spend visibility or standardization.
The result was rogue spend at scale, and few internal staff or tools to control it.
The Challenge
PPI engaged Procure Analytics to help the company leverage PPI’s growing purchasing power and better track indirect spend.
Procure Analytics and supplier partner Fastenal implemented a coordinated procurement solution across seven manufacturing sites.
563
SKUs benchmarked
84
inventory solutions
9%
MRO cost reduction
Procure Analytics reviewed 563 SKUs representing $2.4 million in spend, benchmarking current pricing against what a consolidated, managed program could deliver.
Implementation
Procure Analytics’ implementation team and supplier partners toured PPI’s manufacturing facilities, assessed site-specific needs, and conducted Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analyses, tracing every item from the moment an order was triggered to the moment it was utilized.
The goals:
- Eliminate redundant purchase orders
- Automate order entry where possible, and
- Identify the right inventory management solution for each site.
Procure Analytics managed the entire implementation process, with all sites brought online within six months of benchmarking.
Across seven sites, 84 individual inventory solutions were implemented — including vending lockers, bin stock, and vendor-managed inventory (VMI), as well as Amicus, Procure Analytics’ tail spend management platform.
Results: 9% Cost Savings
In six months, Procure Analytics benchmarked $1.3 million of PPI’s MRO spend and delivered an initial 9% reduction in total MRO costs with further savings opportunities still being realized.
“Our MRO spend is much more controlled now. We brought that recurring spend into a controlled environment where we are getting those items consistently with less effort on our part.”
Joe Canfield, Director of Supply Chain, PPI
With Procure Analytics’ detailed dashboards, the PPI procurement team can now track what each site spends, stocks, and is charged — from how many parts are used per month or the top 10% of products moved by category all the way down to which specific employees are top users.
Next Steps: Data-Driven Decision Making
With initial implementation complete, Procure Analytics began identifying additional cost savings opportunities and supporting PPI in empowering site managers to make smarter, data-driven procurement decisions.
a better approach to mro spend management
Procure Analytics model gives you the leverage, analytics, and resources to drive ongoing value creation.