When the business involves the supply management group in purchasing and sourcing, it can increase savings, better leverage organizational spend, and negotiate stronger contracts. Managed spend, as a percentage of sourceable spend, is a primary indicator of a company’s ability to capture value from the supply management process.

Across industries, only 1.4% of the total headcount is supply management employees.

Cost savings is a powerful KPI for demonstrating the value of supply management (SM) to the business. On average, 22.3% of SM employees are in a strategic sourcing role, each delivering $6.5 million in total savings. How does your company compare?

Companies that undergo organization structure changes as part of an enterprise-wide initiative or market-driven decision face a huge endeavor, but data indicates these changes don’t happen frequently. For the last three years, an average of 74% of companies say they’ve operated under their current org structure for five or more years (Metrics of Supply Management, 2020 - 2022).

Across industries, category management employees comprise an average 13.3% of the total supply management headcount, but each SCM employee manages hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cost savings is a cornerstone KPI for most supply management groups, measured here as reduction and avoidance in managed spend. In 2022, Financial Services led with 6.4% total cost savings.

The most effective marketing tools used for the disposal of surplus assets are email, auctions, and eAuctions.

The length of CPOs’ careers in procurement and supply management has become progressively longer. CPOs averaged 21 years of experience in 2017, which grew to 25.5 years by 2022.

With supply disruptions, supplier risk, and cost inflation critically impacting the performance of many companies, why are only 12% of CPOs reporting directly to the C-suite? 

Strong fundamentals in procurement, supply chain, and supply management will always be important, but supply management leaders are placing increased importance on leadership abilities and interpersonal strengths.