Pallet Management Category Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for Transport and its sub-segments such as Pallet Management are at an interesting intersection. Service providers have begun to use advanced technologies and tools such as loT, predictive analysis and big data for optimal asset utilization, geofencing, warehouse management, and smart inventory management. The efficiencies gained by using new technology and improvement in customer service capabilities are significant. More and more suppliers are moving towards adopting these technologies to realize significant efficiency gains in the longer run, however, it may also increase their OPEX in the short run.

Suppliers are increasingly adopting a demand-driven planning of their assets and resources to reduce costs and optimize operational efficiency. Part of the cost savings are passed on to buyers, but this also creates supply chain risks for them that need to be managed jointly with the supplier.

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 Pallet Management is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

It has become imperative for category managers to remain as agile as possible in terms of their procurement practices. However, it is not always easy to quickly spot and implement alternative practices in a category like Pallet Management. To help quick decision making, this report advises on several procurement best practices that have worked well for category managers.

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.

It is important that buyers assess the operating model of service providers to determine the best-fit case for their organizations. Buyers need to determine if services offered by the providers are comprehensive and involve adequate resource support and a well-defined customizable execution plan.

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.

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