Ran a 60-day A/B on 1,140 tail SKUs: baseline 42 suppliers vs a single master distributor via Coupa… Total landed cost rose 1.8%, but OTIF improved 7.2 points and average lead time dropped from 14 to 9 days; how did you quantify that trade-off when deciding whether to buy through a consolidator?
14 to 9 days We priced that plus the 7.2‑pt OTIF lift as avoided expedites and safety‑stock release, and it cleared a 1.8% premium by week 8. Do you value OTIF in $/late line or $/hour downtime in Coupa? If stockout cost is low, cap the consolidator’s share and tie price creep to SLA credits.
My take: I’d lean toward the simplest next step and see if it changes anything this week — if not, you’ve got a clear case to escalate. What would block you from trying that?
One thing that tipped it for us was putting a dollar on the “back‑end” work: we measured cost per receipt and per invoice exception, and the master distributor cut receipts about 35%, which covered a about 2% price lift by Q1; @martin_olivia66 is right on expedites, but start by locking your $/receipt — do you know that number?