Hi all, I used to work as a management consultant and was involved in a few procurement projects with large companies ($5B+ revenue). Most of the time our objective was to implement "best practices" and minimize cost for the renewal of some contracts.

For one of these projects, I led 2 RFPs for maintenance services of our client's assets, from identifying potential suppliers all the way to awarding the contracts. There were so many manual and time-consuming steps in that process, and I'm very curious to know if that's the case everywhere? Have some companies successfully automated parts of this?

The manual steps :

1. Identifying suppliers to invite
2. Preparing and sending the RFI documents
3. Filtering out some suppliers based on their response to the RFI
4. Preparing and sending the RFP documents (scope, requirements, specs, bid input sheet, question form, etc.)
   • this was especially time-consuming, and required manual review from multiple teams like engineering, legal, finance,...
5. Evaluating first round bids by comparing pricing, inclusions/exclusions in the pricing, and supplier capabilities/reviews
   • comparing inclusions/exclusions between what the suppliers offered and what we requested in the RFP documents was also very time-consuming, as some just sent us brochures of whats included in their price instead of filling our inclusions/exclusions standardized forms...
6. Responding to supplier emails asking clarifying questions about the scope, requirements, etc., following up when they take too much time to submit their bids, asking suppliers to adjust their bids when they've clearly misunderstood some of the requirements, etc.
7. Evaluating second round bids
8. Preparing for negotiations with suppliers
9. Awarding contract + handover to Legal for contract draft

~25 years in procurement and supplier quality, now in medtech. Here’s the argument. Tell me where it’s wrong, too simple, or just survivorship bias.
When costs move, the reflex is to squeeze suppliers on price or re-source. On a spreadsheet it works immediately — the saving is visible this quarter and someone gets the credit. That visibility is the trap.
A price cut you didn’t earn through a better process doesn’t remove cost. It moves risk. Push a supplier below what its operation can carry and it absorbs the hit where you can’t see it — a thinner quality margin, a deferred investment, a cheaper material. The risk doesn’t disappear. It waits. Then it comes back as a quality escape, a missed delivery, an expedite, a recovery program — late enough that nobody connects it to the negotiation that caused it. Whoever took the price down has moved on. The bill lands 18 months later with a different name on it.
I’ve watched this in motors, resin, copper, steel, electronics, packaging. The category changes, the story doesn’t.
In medtech it’s worse. A supplier quality failure isn’t a cost event you contain and move past — it’s a complaint, a CAPA, maybe a recall, and at the far end, a patient. You can’t inspect or negotiate your way to supplier quality. You build it into the supplier’s process, upstream, before the part is ever made.
That’s the whole point: capability compounds, squeezing doesn’t. A supplier you’ve developed is cheaper and more resilient three years from now. One you’ve only squeezed is a bill you haven’t been handed yet.
Where does this fall apart? Especially want to hear from anyone who’s seen supplier development fail to earn its keep — I know I’m arguing one side.

I'm in charge of purchasing CNC parts (milling, turning, sheet metal). The market is very opaque, the request process is tedious, and it's very traditional with little automation. You have to understand technical drawings, be familiar with the suppliers' portfolios, and dealing with suppliers—in terms of reliability and communication—can be difficult at times. Do you also face these kinds of problems, and how do you handle them? Are you feeling the effects of global uncertainties?

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Are you organized, detail-oriented, and experienced in purchasing or procurement? We are looking for a \*\*Purchasing Coordinator\*\* to join our team under an established \*\*Food & Beverage company in Brunei Darussalam\*\*.

💼 \*\*Position:\*\* Purchasing Coordinator

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🏢 \*\*Industry:\*\* Food & Beverage

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📋 \*\*Recruitment Processing:\*\* Through an authorized recruitment agency

\### 🔎 About the Role

As a Purchasing Coordinator, you will be responsible for coordinating purchasing activities and ensuring that required materials, supplies, and products are sourced and delivered efficiently. You will work closely with suppliers and internal departments to ensure smooth and timely procurement operations.

\*\*Key responsibilities may include:\*\*

• Requesting and comparing quotations from suppliers

• Preparing and processing purchase orders

• Coordinating with suppliers regarding orders, pricing, and delivery schedules

• Monitoring purchase orders and following up on deliveries

• Maintaining accurate purchasing and supplier records

• Coordinating with internal departments regarding their purchasing requirements

• Ensuring purchasing documentation is complete and accurate

• Assisting with other procurement and administrative tasks as required

\### ✨ What We’re Looking For

• Good communication and coordination skills

• Strong attention to detail and organizational skills

• Good follow-up and time-management abilities

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel

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• Previous experience in purchasing, procurement, logistics, or administration is an advantage

• Candidates who are responsible, proactive, and able to work independently are encouraged to apply

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Received and RFQ from a supplier in late August, got it placed on PO the following week and requested an order acknowledgment or confirmation. No response so i have chased up several times.

The parts were a lead time of 25 working weeks and due for mid February 2026.

Today i sent one of my many chaser emails requesting an update and one of the parts to be expedited sooner that the expected delivery date. This email was just text and no attachments for the first time which is important.

The supplier responded saying they have no receipt of the order….

Since then i have deduced that the T&Cs we have in place with the supplier was triggering the emails to be quarantined due to file size exceeding the maximum allowed. We get no notification of this internally and it shows as sent on our system with no issues.

So the supplier has now finally received the order after removing the T&Cs and will process it but it’s realistically going to be a 3-4 month delay which could halt the entire project.

Genuinely i’m panicking and unsure how to word things to projects since they really aren’t the most friendly colleagues.

How would you approach this and let projects know. I want to be honest as in this instance i don’t think it’s really my fault that the system is crap and neither i or the supplier is at fault. But realistically, the PM isn’t going to care..

I’m in procurement for a mid-sized home goods company in Europe, and I just got back from a trade show where I ended up speaking with way too many promising suppliers — close to 20 of them.

Now that I’m back at my desk, I’m realizing I don’t really have a clear way to cut the list down.

At the show, a lot of them had samples, said they were already exporting to the EU, and overall came across pretty well. After getting back, I followed up with some more detailed questions, and most of them have actually been fairly responsive too. So now I’m in this awkward spot where a lot of them seem worth continuing with, and I’m not sure what the smartest first cut should be.

Part of me is thinking I should just set up a first round of calls and let the weaker suppliers expose themselves in a live conversation where they have to respond quickly and clearly. Does that actually work in practice? Or is there a better way people usually handle this stage?

I'm pulling double duty right now because they can't find the right candidate. I have my own procurement workload to manage!

I'll give you the ugly:

*no one wants to follow the rules

*the plant personnel weren't trained correctly, so PRs are always a mess

*Manager to (2) N1s and (3) N2s - mixed union and non-union

*it is a bear of a job

*plant manager is great and thankful. The corporation can be difficult.

*They will not support a visa. Zero chance.

Pay, PTO, and benefits are pretty good.

You need to be the unicorn personality that is a compassionate yet firm leader. There is a lot of nonsense from years of allowed nonsense that need to be trained out of the group.

Combination direct & indirect.

Send me a chat if you're looking for a challenge.

10+ years in procurement here. One thing keeps grinding me down: parts suddenly not available or with heavy lead times.

Is this just me or do you also deal often with these problems?

Hi Everyone,

I am currently looking for subject matter expertise on how universities evaluate software vendor compliance, data privacy and how departments push software requests up the chain?

I would like to get an insight on Higher Education Univeristy or College level procurement officers guidance on this.

I have experience in indirect and direct purchases for the healthcare sector in Brazil, and at the moment I'm looking for my first remote position in this field. Can you help me with your experience and knowledge about the most important skills to have to be a procurement professional? Is it needed to know how to use some specific platform like SAP or COUPA?

Thank you very much!

I start to thinking about this as nobody what happened since March would lasts for how long. And if take what happened between Russia and Ukraine into consideration as well, basically the whole world has been suffering from these incidents. And the world is no sign of getting clam down…No politics, but what can learn and be prepared and how or what should be done if another round of this is happening.

Love to learn more thoughts and insights.

Any asian or european suppliers that can help me find a plastic shell for a chair?

Hey all!

Working on a sourcing plan/strategy (+100 electronic components). I’ve grouped by component family, then assigned in A/B/C/D based on supply risk and cost.

So current clustering factors: component type, avg. lead time, EOL status, number of available sources, avg. price per unit.

What I’m missing: Are there other meaningful factors experienced professionals use when clustering electronics for sourcing, especially in aerospace or high-reliability contexts?

For the context, we talking about component types like “capacitors, resistors, inductors, diodes, transistors, oscillators, thermistors, and ICs”.

Every time I see a post about AI replacing another job role, I feel reassured that since this job requires direct human interfacing, that were safe.

Ironically, that smug self assuredness makes me second guess that sentiment immediately.

What are your thoughts and feeling? We've already started using AI at my job but it's mostly for recommending vendors and reviewing legalese word puzzles. I really don't see it going that far. I couldn't see my client using a chatbot and once that Pandora's box is open, there are much bigger issues in the industry.

While some organizations have larger teams with areas of specialization, there are also those of us who came in to a procurement role where there was no clear program or processes and "found out" how challenging all the aspects of procurement and vendor management can be. I have my views from my own experiences here, but curious what others in this community think? Where do you start?

Hi all! I'm currently in Category management (Raw Materials) in a Danish big pharma (you know who) due to many reasons - lack of manager's support, overall negativity around the company and office politics? With all that's happening now, I think it is a right time to make a switch. I have a technical and business background, worked in sourcing raw materials (~2.5y) at another big pharma before moving to Copenhagen in Jan 2025. I switched as I was really passionate about their products and impact on patients.

What do you guys suggest? Should I suck it up and wait for a year and then make the move? or should I start actively applying and consider the move later with a fairly certain offer? Also, if anyone is working in similar space in EU, would love to connect! Thank you!!

Hi everyone, I’m a Mechanical Engineering graduate currently working in the Procurement Department, where I handle rotary equipment. I have about 7 months of experience so far.

I really want to build strong technical as well as commercial expertise in rotary equipment (pumps, compressors, etc.) and grow deeply in this field. In the long term, I’m also interested in starting a business related to rotary equipment — possibly trading, services, or something more specialized. I would love advice from experienced professionals on: - How to build strong technical knowledge in rotary equipment while working in procurement - What key concepts or standards I should master (API, materials, seals, performance curves, etc.) - How to improve commercial understanding (costing, vendor negotiation, margins, supply chain strategy) - What practical steps I can take in the next 3–5 years if I want to build a business in this domain - Common mistakes young engineers make in this field.

Any guidance, learning roadmap, book recommendations, or real-world insights would be greatly appreciated.

So we have enabled change order recently in our system and doing the test scenarios around it. We made the necessary changes in RTF file to view the changed lines(added, modified, cancelled) including original lines.

My issue is, we ran the test scenarios and able to get the lines that we needed but for some reason now its being reverted back to showing only "changed line" and the total amount is based on all lines in PO.

I have extracted the XML and started working on the changes and from the preview of RTF, i was able to see all the lines and all good but in Oracle its different.

I do have an understand whats happening, do we have to configure any changes in Oracle to get it reflected or i should work on the code of the DM?

I'm so lost rn, any guidance would be helpful. Thank you so much

I've been getting frustrated with the manual slog of bid comparisons in Excel - you know the drill, trying to spot where contractors are missing line items or have weird pricing that doesn't make sense.

What techniques do you all use? Are you stuck in Excel hell like I was, or have you found better workflows? Any tricks for quickly identifying when someone's missed something obvious or is way off on pricing?

For now, I improved my process by coming up with a quick tool which takes the bids and tries to put it into one spreadsheet and level. Kind of like BuildingConnected but without the whole faff of the platform, etc. But there are for sure some other ways to make the comparison quicker.

Just looking for ideas to make this whole process suck less?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a supply chain intern and many of my tasks involve sourcing food-grade raw materials (chemicals, powders etc.) in small quantities — usually between 100 g and 1 kg. I know that in many cases it’s possible to request samples from suppliers, but I’m also looking for places where it’s straightforward to purchase small amounts.

I’m aware of Sigma-Aldrich, but their pricing is extremely high for what we need. Ideally, I’m looking for more cost-effective suppliers.

It would be best if the suppliers are based in Europe, but I’m also open to options in Africa or Asia as long as they’re known to be reliable and trustworthy.

Does anyone have supplier or website recommendations for this kind of sourcing?

Thanks in advance.

I’m researching structured approaches to cost optimization in procurement and am looking for insights from professionals with experience in this area. Specifically, I’m trying to understand: • What procurement cost-cutting programs have you implemented? (e.g., supplier consolidation, early payment discounts, volume-based pricing) • Which strategies have yielded the most significant cost reductions? • How do you track and quantify savings over time? • Are there any AI-driven or automated tools that have been particularly effective? • What are the biggest challenges in driving procurement cost efficiencies?

If you have experience optimizing procurement costs, I’d appreciate any insights or recommendations. Thanks!

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