Mitigating a supplier's input costs
28 August 2012
Q: Our aluminium manufacturing company in the Middle East buys a lot of white wood for packaging. We are unable to benefit from bulk purchasing because the wood's price constantly fluctuates and suppliers won't fix the price unless we buy a whole year's s
A: Dominic Limbrey, manager, direct material services, at Xchanging Procurement Services, writes: You need to prioritise what is most important to you. This is likely to be a mix of lowest price, price stability and availability. Whichever is most important will drive your procurement behaviour. However, what you can do is fundamentally...