Background
Bugaboo is one of the fastest growing company in the baby stroller business, occupying a market leadership position in the high end segment of the market. Given the exponential growth experienced by company, the entire supply chain and procurement focus was to keep their factory capable of manufacturing and delivering to customer requirements. As a result, very limited efforts had been devoted to identifying and partnering with potentially more competitive suppliers. The company’s management considered it was time to investigate the potential of having an assembly factory in China to take advantage of the development and technical opportunities as well as the competitiveness of this country.
Approach
- Conducted initial assessment of procurement capabilities and of current suppliers’ performance in regard of Bugaboo’s growth perspectives
- Developed a complete business case for leveraging China sourcing opportunities with a new assembly factory in China, supported by a detailed “as-is” cost model of Taiwan factory and “to-be” cost model of the China based one
- Conducted the analysis that lead to the selection of the new factory location
- Supported the program management of the Chinese factory ramp-up
- For 4 major spend categories accounting for 85% of total costs, screened 1500+ suppliers through a rigorous RFI / RFP / factory audit process in order to assess their ability to:
– Efficiently respond to Bugaboo’s current needs and support future developments
– Meet Bugaboo’s Corporate Social Responsibility requirements - Monitored sample making and testing/approval by Bugaboo until final qualification of suppliers
Results
Developed a compelling business case for a factory in China and fully supported the achievement of the corresponding benefits
Identified an attractive location for the new Chinese factory
Supported the adoption of a “design for manufacturing” approach in order to adapt the specification process to constantly increasing needs of quality and supply flexibility
Developed a whole set of tools to screen and qualify suppliers (RFI, RFP, supplier audit report) that became Bugaboo standard
Developed a strong supply base for the 4 major spend categories and miscellaneous other ones
Negotiated prices confirming and sometimes exceeding the anticipated savings
Initiated the development in China of a strong Bugaboo production platform for future developments