[ INSIGHT ] PROCUREMENT
by Caldwell Hart Principal, Procurement and Supply Chain Management, Avetta caldwell.hart@avetta.com | 949-936-4500
Powering Growth Through Insights Today’s complex business environment is marked by fluctuating demand, supply chain disruptions, cyber threats, changing fiscal policies, and regulatory shifts. Procurement professionals must balance cost-saving measures with a mandate to reduce risk, build resilience, enhance supplier relationships, and drive growth.
Implement a continuous improvement framework. Benchmarking must be embedded into a culture of continuous improvement. A structured approach, such as the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology, ensures procurement teams move beyond monitoring risks by addressing root causes. Establishing key performance indicators, securing leadership buy-in and fostering cross- functional collaboration are critical steps. Moreover, procurement teams should adopt a crawl-walk-run approach, focusing on incremental improvements before scaling larger transformation initiatives. This approach allows organizations to systematically eliminate inef ciencies, enhance supplier performance and build a more agile procurement function. Build resilience through supplier lifecycle management. A resilient supply chain requires a proactive approach to supplier lifecycle management. Organizations must continuously evaluate supplier capabilities, eliminate risks and foster strong partnerships. By leveraging the power of information in supplier selection, evaluation and contract management, procurement teams can optimize relationships and improve agility. Take action in the face of uncertainty. Organizations must move beyond simple data collection and actively apply insights to drive improvements in supplier performance. n
best practices, organizations can conduct a comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to assess purchasing power, identify areas for improvement and enhance strategic planning. To maximize benchmarking value, procurement teams should: • Identify clear benchmarking goals. De ne what the organization wants to learn and ensure benchmarks provide realistic, actionable insights. • Use a variety of sources. Rely on diverse industry reports, consulting rms, and target companies to ensure an accurate assessment of market position and identify areas for innovation. • Update benchmarking data regularly. Best-in-class procurement teams continuously track their performance against industry leaders and re ne their strategies accordingly. • Leverage insights to drive procurement maturity. Analyze data around people, processes, and technology, to develop targeted procurement effectiveness strategies.
The key lies in leveraging leading indicators, benchmarking, and implementing a continuous improvement framework. These elements, when used effectively, enable leading organizations to drive growth, margin expansion, and competitive advantage. Track leading indicators for future business risk. Leading indicators provide crucial foresight that, when coupled with lagging indicators, enable organizations to model the impact of future disruptions leading to proactive measures. Cybersecurity, nancial stability assessments, regulatory compliance trends, and operational performance metrics should be continuously monitored. These indicators provide early warnings, helping procurement teams anticipate challenges rather than react to them. Organizations that integrate these insights into their procurement strategies ensure supply chain continuity by removing vulnerabilities. Benchmark for SWOT analysis and procurement maturity. By systematically comparing performance against industry
48 Inbound Logistics • July 2025
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