Knife Market Procurement Intelligence Report

A changing ecosystem within the Tools market also affects the procurement process, cost dynamics and supplier attractiveness for the buyers of Knife. Several structural changes including M&As and vertical integration efforts of suppliers are characterizing the broader market. Such strategic developments can erode the strength of previously established supplier relationships due to changed realities in the supplier's ecosystem. At the same time, buyers may also find opportunities to onboard new suppliers with a wider range of offerings or better contract terms for .

Suppliers are continuously taking efforts to improve efficiencies and productivity and deploying processes and technologies. Some of these investments are likely to increase their costs in the shorter term, but learnings from other sectors keep the suppliers optimistic about a lean cost structure in the longer run.

Volatility in the prices of key inputs is creating multiple issues that impact procurement within Knife category such as benchmarking and budgeting of the procurement costs.

The report discusses in detail the best practices that have served well the category managers responsible for Knife procurement.

For example, Strong R&D focus is the sign of a supplier committed to enhancing the quality and cost proposition of its solutions. Buyers should collaborate with such suppliers for development of low-cost but highly efficiency products that can bring their OPEX down.

Buyers should invest in benchmarking studies that help category managers to improve their knowledge on market pricing or billing rates of service providers. This helps them to not only save costs but also increase their negotiation power.

Buyers should engage with suppliers that have adopted a global delivery model as it reduces buyers' risk. In this model, any disaster/emergency at any operating facility of supplier will result in the work being transferred to a different facility, thereby ensuring continuity of the project and reduced risk for buyers. This model also provides buyers access to skilled labor from across the globe, thereby improving the quality of engineering products provided by the supplier.

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