See where value is lost.
Review what you buy, from whom, under which terms, and for what purpose. Identify fragmented spend, avoidable purchases, inconsistent pricing, and categories where better coordination could improve results.
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Strategy & Resilience / Procurement & Sourcing
Buy with purpose.
Build a stronger supply base.
We help your team assess a defined purchasing category or supplier group, compare sourcing options, and establish the controls to manage performance. Each engagement is tailored to your industry, requirements, and supplier risks.
Make purchasing a strategic capability
The right supplier.
The right relationship.
A lower quoted price can come with higher freight, defects, excess inventory, or disruption. We help your team make sourcing decisions against the value and risk that matter to your business or mission.
Choose on evidence.
Compare suppliers against agreed specifications, capacity, quality, delivery, total cost, and responsible-business expectations. Distinguish an attractive offer from a supplier that can meet the actual requirement.
Make commitments visible.
Connect supplier agreements to purchasing controls, ownership, performance measures, and regular reviews. Turn recurring problems into actions with named owners and verified follow-through.
How we facilitate
From purchasing data
to a sourcing plan.
The example below is a six-week assessment of a defined category or supplier group. It produces a practical improvement roadmap. We agree the scope, decision points, and participants before work begins; supplier qualification or transition may continue beyond the review.
WEEK 1Discover
Establish the baseline.
Review spend, demand, contracts, supplier records, purchasing practices, and recurring issues. Confirm what the organization needs to improve.
Working output
Spend and supplier baseline, priority issues, and an agreed category scope.
WEEK 2Define
Agree the buying criteria.
Bring Procurement, Quality, Supply Chain, end users, and Finance together. Define mandatory requirements, evaluation criteria, approval rights, and the cost horizon.
Working output
Requirements, supplier qualification criteria, and an evaluation method.
WEEK 3Explore
Develop credible options.
Assess incumbent capability, market alternatives, and opportunities to consolidate, develop, or diversify the supply base. Prepare consistent information or quotation requests where appropriate.
Working output
Sourcing options, a potential supplier shortlist, and information requests.
WEEK 4Evaluate
Compare total value and risk.
Normalize offers, test assumptions, and compare qualification evidence. Include landed cost, payment terms, inventory exposure, switching effort, and disruption risk.
Working output
Supplier comparison, total-cost assumptions, and unresolved qualification gaps.
WEEK 5Align
Build the recommendation.
Facilitate tradeoffs, support commercial discussions, and define performance expectations with the accountable team. Identify contractual and technical reviews needed before commitment.
Working output
Sourcing recommendation, negotiation priorities, and an approval or transition plan.
WEEK 6Launch
Put the controls to work.
Agree the onboarding workflow, supplier scorecard, review cadence, and first 90-day actions. Assign owners for open qualifications, supplier development, and implementation.
Working output
Implementation roadmap, scorecard, responsibilities, and review calendar.
The schedule is illustrative. Supplier testing, audits, tooling, validation, contractual notice periods, or formal tender approvals may extend implementation beyond the assessment. A completed sourcing review does not itself authorize a supplier for production or service delivery.
Responsible & sustainable sourcing
Set expectations.
Follow through.
An ethical supply base needs clear standards and a process for checking how suppliers meet them. We help embed environmental and social responsibility into selection, onboarding, and ongoing review.
Environmental responsibility
Define relevant purchasing criteria for energy and material use, packaging, waste, transport, and product life. Ask for evidence appropriate to the category and compare environmental benefits alongside cost, quality, and service.
Make “green” commitments specific enough to evaluate and track.
People & business ethics
Establish supplier expectations addressing child labor, forced labor, human trafficking, working conditions, health and safety, and ethical business conduct. Prioritize due diligence by the severity and likelihood of potential harm, including relevant subcontractor risks.
A signed supplier code of conduct starts the relationship; evidence, follow-up, and remediation sustain it.
Make responsible onboarding part of the buying process.
- RegisterCollect supplier identity, ownership, locations, contacts, and required documents in a controlled record.
- CommitObtain acknowledgement of the supplier code of conduct and relevant purchasing expectations.
- AssessReview questionnaires and supporting evidence; escalate higher-risk suppliers for additional checks.
- Monitor & actAssign corrective actions, reassess material changes, and escalate unresolved issues through agreed decision rights.
We help define the workflow and evidence requirements with your Procurement, sustainability, and compliance teams, using existing supplier-management platforms where practical.
Supplier performance & development
One scorecard.
A shared view of performance.
One scorecard does not fit every industry. We tailor measures, targets, weighting, and review depth to your industry, supplier category, and risk. The common foundations are quality, delivery, total value, responsiveness, and responsible conduct.
How measures differ by industry and category
- Pharmaceuticals & medical devices: qualification status, documentation and traceability, quality findings, change communication, and material availability.
- Manufacturing & distribution: defects, capacity, lead-time consistency, delivery performance, and inventory impact.
- Services, agencies & nonprofits: contracted deliverables, response and resolution times, service quality, and relevant mission outcomes.
Within an industry, a critical material supplier, a freight carrier, and a software provider need different measures and review depth. We agree thresholds and weights with the teams that depend on the supplier.
| Dimension | What we might measure | What it helps decide |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | Defect or rejection rate, repeat nonconformances, and corrective-action effectiveness. | Where qualification, process improvement, or escalation is needed. |
| Delivery | On-time, in-full delivery against an agreed baseline; overdue open orders; and backorder aging. | How to address service failures and plan supply continuity. |
| Total value | Landed cost, price variance, premium freight, and agreed cost or service improvements. | Whether the commercial relationship improves overall cost and business or mission outcomes. |
| Responsiveness | Response and resolution time, action closure, and reliability of commitments. | Where ownership, communication, or supplier development needs attention. |
| Responsible sourcing | Required evidence, outstanding environmental or labor findings, and verified corrective actions. | When to require improvement, further assessment, or a sourcing decision. |
Keep the original commitment visible.
A changed due date should not erase a missed commitment. We help define a scorecard that retains the original customer or business need date and the first supplier-confirmed date, then shows revised dates separately.
Use SAP or other ERP extracts with dated snapshots where practical. Review overdue open orders and backorder aging alongside completed-delivery performance, so unresolved shortages remain visible.
How we keep the measures consistent
- Agree the baseline. Define the order or line being measured, the relevant date, partial-delivery rules, quantity requirements, and review cutoff. Separate performance against the requested date from performance against the first confirmed commitment.
- Retain date changes. Record the original and revised dates, change timestamp, reason, and requester or approver where available. If the source overwrites dates, establish a retained snapshot or change record before relying on the trend.
- Show the open exposure. Track overdue quantities, value where relevant, and days past the original baseline. Define backorders consistently and avoid counting the same shortage twice in a combined total.
- Explain the variance. Distinguish supplier delay, internal rescheduling, demand changes, and other causes with evidence. A justified change provides context; original and revised-date performance remain visible.
Every measure needs a definition, data source, owner, and review period. Critical quality or ethical findings trigger their own escalation; a strong overall score must not hide them.
Different responsibilities.
A shared supplier decision.
Quality may favor reducing exposure to a supplier with recurring defects. Procurement and Supply Chain may be developing additional qualified sources to protect continuity. We bring those considerations into one documented decision.
Review supplier performance, qualification status, replacement lead time, available capacity, and transition risk together. Agree whether to develop, restrict, replace, or add a source, with named approvers and actions. Required quality approvals remain part of the decision.
The right people in the room
Procurement leads.
The organization contributes.
The sponsor owns the business decision. We facilitate a shared assessment with the people who buy, specify, use, finance, and depend on the supply.
Sponsor & Procurement
Set priorities, provide spend and supplier access, lead commercial decisions, and approve the sourcing direction.
Quality, Operations & Supply Chain
Define technical and service requirements, assess qualification and capacity, and plan operational acceptance and continuity.
Finance & Specialist Reviewers
Validate the cost baseline and benefits. Legal, sustainability, compliance, or technical specialists review requirements within their remit.
A usable sourcing toolkit
What you receive.
An evidence-based sourcing recommendation and the tools to put it to work. We agree the deliverables at the outset, so your team knows which decisions the review will support and what it will have in hand.
- Spend and supplier baseline with priority opportunities
- Category or supplier strategy and sourcing recommendation
- Supplier evaluation and total-cost comparison
- Qualification and responsible-onboarding workflow
- Supplier code-of-conduct and evidence requirements for internal review
- Supplier scorecard, review cadence, and action register
- Implementation roadmap with owners and first 90-day priorities
Your role in the work
What we need from
your organization.
Your team supplies the requirements, records, and decision-makers needed for a credible recommendation. We confirm access and responsibilities at the outset.
- An accountable sponsor and Procurement lead
- Spend history, supplier master data, and current contracts
- Demand forecasts, specifications, and service requirements
- Quality, delivery, inventory, and supplier performance records
- Relevant policies, approval rights, and responsible-sourcing commitments
- Time from reviewers and authority to make agreed decisions
For government agencies and nonprofits, the work is tailored to the organization’s purchasing policies, funding conditions, required approvals, and records of supplier evaluation.
Foundations of our approach
Iron Sights Consulting combines practical sourcing methods with established responsible-procurement guidance, tailored to the organization and the category.
- ISO 20400 — Sustainable procurement guidanceIntegrating sustainability into procurement decisions and processes.
- OECD — Due diligence for responsible business conductRisk-based assessment, prevention, monitoring, and appropriate remediation of impacts on people and the environment.
Start with a conversation
Where does your
supply base need to improve?
Tell us about the category, supplier challenge, or purchasing process you want to strengthen. We will help define a practical scope and starting point.
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