Purchasing Director (Private Equity)

Initial situation

The company is a multinational industrial company in the manufacturing sector, with operations in several countries and a complex organizational structure. It is owned by a European venture capital fund, which is in the process of optimizing operations and organic and inorganic growth.

The purchasing area had significant inefficiencies:

• Lack of planning and control of demand.
• Absence of clear parameters for inventory management.
• Unstructured relationships with other companies in the group.
• Processes that are not very automated and without adequate technological tools for the purchasing function.

All of this contributed to excess inventory, lack of visibility into real needs, and untapped savings opportunities.

Project objectives

The Company contacts QMT to incorporate an interim manager expert in purchasing to carry out an independent analysis of the situation, define policies and procedures, assign responsibilities and execute immediate actions aimed at reducing the level of inventories.

An initial period of 2 months is established.

The project had the following goals:

• Establish a robust demand planning model.
• Optimize the level of inventories without compromising supply continuity.
• Redesign the relationship model with other companies in the group to take advantage of synergies.
• Identify savings opportunities by reviewing contracts and deliverables.
• Propose technology enhancements that support an efficient and scalable procurement function.

Results

After the 2 months of the project, the following are important achievements achieved:

• Demand planning: The demand planning process was defined and clear responsibilities were assigned among the areas involved.
• Inventory optimization: Minimum stocks and reorder points were established for all SKUs, reducing the inventory of raw materials, components and merchandise from €7.1M to €4.5M, in a sustainable way.
• Synergies between group companies: A relationship model was designed to share strategic and indirect purchasing functions, identifying synergies and potential efficiencies.
• Savings through contract renegotiation: Contracts with suppliers were reviewed, cancelling unnecessary supplies or rescheduling deliveries according to stock levels, which generated savings of more than €2M.
• Technological improvements: Necessary improvements were defined in the purchasing system, aimed at automating tasks and strengthening the process, facilitating more agile and precise management.