The Buyer's Side with Fexingo: Procurement, Sourcing, and B2B Purchasing Decisions

Episode 31 of The Buyer's Side digs into should-cost modeling — a procurement technique that breaks down exactly what a product should cost to manufacture, down to the raw material and labor hour. Lucas and Luna walk through how a mid-size auto parts buyer used should-cost analysis to challenge a long-standing supplier's price increase and secure a 12 percent reduction. They cover the data sources...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna explore how a mid-size manufacturer used dynamic discounting to improve both supplier relationships and its own cash flow. They walk through the specific mechanics: how the buyer offered early payment in exchange for a 2 percent discount on invoices, and how that created a win-win with suppliers who valued liquidity. They discuss the difference b...

Lucas and Luna explore how procurement teams can band together through supplier consortiums to negotiate better pricing and terms. Using a real-world case of three mid-sized manufacturers who formed a buying group for specialty steel, the hosts break down how collective bargaining worked, the legal guardrails needed, and the surprising challenges around data sharing and trust. Lucas explains the s...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna explore how a mid-size automotive parts manufacturer leveraged supplier-led design to reduce component costs by 20 percent while improving performance. They walk through the collaboration with a precision machining supplier who proposed a material change and a redesigned geometry that eliminated three assembly steps. The hosts discuss the procure...

How does a mid-size manufacturer get critical components faster without paying a premium? This episode unpacks a real case: a medical device company that switched six key suppliers to vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and cut average lead times from twelve weeks to seven—while reducing its own inventory carrying costs by 22 percent. Lucas and Luna walk through how the VMI agreements were structured,...

Episode 26 of The Buyer's Side. Lucas and Luna drill into a specific case: how a mid-sized manufacturer used a supplier self-assessment portal to surface critical risks before they became crises. The company asked 47 suppliers to complete a standardized risk questionnaire covering financial health, geopolitical exposure, and single-point-of-failure dependencies. The result? They identified a Tier-...

Episode 25 of The Buyer's Side. Lucas and Luna break down how a mid-size specialty chemicals company successfully pitched strategic procurement as an investment, not a cost center, to a skeptical CFO. The case: Cambridge Chemical Solutions, a $400 million revenue firm that created a 'strategic sourcing P&L' — a parallel income statement showing procurement's direct impact on margin. The result: a...

When a critical component comes from only one supplier, the buyer has no leverage. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine how a mid-sized manufacturer broke free from a single-source parts supplier that had been raising prices 12 percent annually. They walk through the specific steps the procurement team took: analyzing total cost of ownership beyond the unit price, calculating the cost of switch...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna explore how one mid-sized manufacturer used supplier-led cost transparency to uncover hidden savings and strengthen supplier relationships. They walk through a specific case: a medical device company that asked its top 20 suppliers to open their cost books in exchange for longer contracts and shared efficiency gains. The result was a 15 percent r...

Episode 22 of The Buyer's Side explores offtake agreements—a procurement strategy where buyers commit to purchasing a fixed volume of a supplier's future output in exchange for priority access and stable pricing. Lucas and Luna break down a real-world example: how a mid-sized battery manufacturer used a five-year offtake agreement with a lithium miner to lock in supply during a 2023-2024 shortage,...

Episode 21 of The Buyer's Side with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna explore how procurement teams can turn routine supplier audits into engines for innovation. Using the example of a mid-sized automotive parts manufacturer that embedded design engineers in its audit process, the hosts break down how the company uncovered 11 patentable modifications — and generated $4.2 million in shared value. They discus...

When a midsize outdoor equipment company wanted to launch a new tent line for the 2025 spring season, their procurement team did something unconventional: they invited their three key fabric and pole suppliers into the design process before the specs were finalized. This episode tells the story of how Clarus Outdoors (not their real name) used early-supplier involvement — ESI — to cut their produc...

Episode 19 of The Buyer's Side looks at how a mid-sized automotive parts manufacturer avoided a production shutdown when copper prices spiked and supply tightened in early 2026. Lucas and Luna walk through the buyer's playbook: mapping single-source dependencies, qualifying secondary suppliers in Vietnam and Mexico, and restructuring contracts to include volume flexibility. They discuss the cost o...

Episode 18 of The Buyer's Side goes beyond price negotiation to explore Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) — the hidden costs that inflate supplier expenses by 20-40%. Lucas and Luna break down real-world examples, including a mid-sized manufacturer that saved $2 million annually by switching from lowest-cost to TCO-based sourcing. They discuss categories like maintenance, downtime, training, and dispo...

Episode 17 of The Buyer's Side explores a counterintuitive procurement move: paying suppliers early. Lucas and Luna break down how a mid-sized manufacturer voluntarily shortened payment terms from 60 days to 10 in exchange for a 4 percent discount, saving over $2 million annually. They walk through the math, the cash-flow conditions required, the supplier relationship benefits, and the risks—inclu...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna examine how a mid-sized manufacturer used a weighted supplier scorecard to reduce quality-related costs by 30 percent over 18 months. They break down the specific metrics—defect rate, on-time delivery, and corrective action response time—and explain how the buying company weighted each factor to align supplier behavior with internal priorities. T...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into Unilever's open-innovation procurement model, where suppliers submit unsolicited ideas for cost savings and sustainability. They explore how the program works, why it can save up to 50% on certain projects, and how a small packaging supplier's biodegradable sachet proposal saved Unilever $15 million annually. The hosts discuss the mindset shift required for...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna dive into a rarely discussed procurement tactic: mid-contract payment term renegotiation. They examine how a mid-sized electronics manufacturer used a cash-flow analysis and a transparent conversation with its key component supplier to shift from net-60 to net-30 terms, unlocking $2.3 million in working capital without raising prices or cutting o...

In this episode of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna explore a hidden procurement risk: suppliers who file patents on innovations developed during your contract. They walk through the real case of a medical device company that lost control of a critical component design because a supplier patented it first. Then they share practical ways to rewrite your IP clauses, from data rights definitions to a...

Episode 12 of The Buyer's Side explores how a mid-sized electronics manufacturer used framework agreements to stabilize pricing during the 2025–2026 commodity volatility. Lucas and Luna walk through the actual negotiation with a lithium-ion battery supplier—how the buyer secured a 15 percent discount off spot prices by committing to volume over 18 months, with quarterly price reviews tied to the L...

When a mid-sized manufacturer suddenly lost a key supplier to bankruptcy, their procurement team realized they had been blind to the warning signs. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how a handful of companies are now using publicly available financial data and AI models to forecast supplier insolvency before it happens. They walk through a specific case: how a $500 million automotive parts c...

Episode 10 of The Buyer's Side with Fexingo digs into tail spend — the thousands of small, low-value purchases that collectively eat into margins. Lucas and Luna unpack a real-world case: a mid-sized manufacturer with 8,000 active suppliers, 70 percent of whom accounted for just 3 percent of total spend. They walk through how the procurement team consolidated those suppliers using a tiered vendor...

In episode nine of The Buyer's Side, Lucas and Luna dig into a single case study: a mid-sized automotive parts manufacturer that slashed incoming supplier defects by 80 percent over twelve months without switching suppliers or raising prices. The hosts walk through the three-step process the company used—starting with a Pareto analysis of defect types, then redesigning its incoming inspection prot...

Episode 8 of The Buyer's Side digs into supplier quality scorecards—a procurement tool that measures and ranks suppliers on defect rates, on-time delivery, and responsiveness. Lucas and Luna walk through how a mid-sized automotive parts manufacturer, Bendix Automotive, implemented a weighted scorecard system and cut defects by 52 percent in 18 months. They discuss how the company selected metrics,...

Episode 7 of The Buyer's Side explores how mid-market manufacturers are forming supplier consortiums to push back against price increases. Lucas and Luna break down the case of a 150-person industrial parts company in Ohio that banded together with three non-competing peers to negotiate shared raw material contracts. The result: a 9 percent cost reduction on steel and aluminum in 2025, even as spo...