O-Rings Category Procurement Intelligence Report

Business practices within O-Rings market are heavily influenced by changing trends across the category as well as within the broader Warehousing and Storage market. Large global suppliers are entering into JVs and M&As with vendors that can provide them a solid footing for regional play.

Cyber security has emerged as a top priority within logistics and supply chain ecosystems. New accountability standards are emerging for the way suppliers and buyers collaborate and protect sensitive information and assets.

Rise in minimum labor wages across countries such as the US and China will result in increased employee expenses for O-Rings suppliers who will be forced to pass on a part of this increase to their buyers.

As a result, category managers need to closely monitor the O-Rings procurement trends and identify changes required in their procurement environment for the category.

O-Rings procurement best practices are moving towards a level of sophistication which is typically seen in traditional procurement categories. Category managers now have an attractive opportunity to adapt the best practices seen within this category as well as those being leveraged in other non-related categories. This report summarizes the best practices picked from across multiple categories that could work well for category managers involved with O-Rings procurement strategy.

For example, Buyers need to assess the level of automation provided and time required to obtain process efficiency, apart from checking if suppliers have the correct documentation for as-is processes and to-be processes to avoid any conflicts in implementation.

Buyers prefer to engage with service providers that offer robust technological systems and leverage Internet-based systems to reduce cost and simplify visibility across the supply chain. Buyers should also assess the integration capabilities of software platforms offered by service providers to ensure that there are no additional costs incurred for software implementation.

It is important for category managers to track and measure supplier performance against a defined set of KPIs that are agreed upon by both parties during contract negotiation, including inventory accuracy, dock-to-stock, and on-time shipment. This is critical to ensure the optimal level of service. Suppliers' performance can also be linked to a part of their fee, which can be paid depending on the level of services rendered.

O-Rings procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for O-Rings procurement. Some examples include: