Caissons Market Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Warehousing and Storage and its sub-segments such as Caissons are at an interesting intersection. Managing the logistics risks and building a resilient supply chain has taken the centerstage among corporate priorities. Companies are investing heavily to be able to detect disruptions in time and respond in a manner which does not put the core operations at risk. All suppliers within the ecosystem are expected to play their part and embrace the processes, tools and technologies that their customers have implemented to build a resilient supply chain.

Large global suppliers are entering into JVs and M&As with vendors that can provide them a solid footing for regional play.

Businesses are focused on maintaining a lean inventory of raw materials, parts, components and finished goods. While it is a novel concept to keep the inventory costs in check, it also highly challenging to implement in a global sourcing context and requires a clock work like optimization of logistics and warehousing processes. Companies are moving to a completely digital supply chain footprint to reduce errors and risks associated with such strategies.

Trends like these and many others discussed in this report are necessitating a relook at the way Caissons is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

As market conditions become more dynamic and procurement practices get more sophisticated, category managers need to be cognizant of the best practices that work for their Caissons category procurement. The report offers a succinct analysis of Caissons procurement best practices.

For example, Buyers must track suppliers' quality management systems to ensure that the products are stored in a hygienic environment and have almost zero probability of occurrence of damages. This is particularly critical for buyers in industries such as food and beverages and pharmaceutical.

Buyers should negotiate to get the best add-on services from their suppliers, such as real-time tracking, route optimization, big data analytics to plan and forecast future requirements and Six Sigma practices to ensure the procurement of quality services.

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.

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