Functional & Category Strategy

In today’s volatile global environment — shaped by ESG demands and rapid technological change — many industrial companies face a critical challenge in their procurement functions. Despite increasing purchasing volumes, there is often no clear, forward-looking roadmap tailored to each category or part family. This strategic gap frequently leads to inconsistent pricing, overlapping specifications, and missed opportunities for innovation within supplier networks — all of which undermine daily operations. At the same time, procurement’s full potential remains underutilized, particularly regarding the significant opportunities categories offer for cost reduction, quality enhancement, and innovation acceleration.

Typical indicators signaling an urgent need for action include:

• Lack of spend transparency and fragmented stakeholder focus, with no comprehensive mapping of costs, risks, and value drivers.
• Inconsistent specifications hinder synergy effects across business units and/or locations.
• Unclear make-or-buy boundaries amid fluctuating capacity and utilization.
• Over-segmentation of categories and insufficient modularization, which prevents scalability and efficiency gains.
• Untapped or underutilized potential for innovation partnerships.
• Absence of technology roadmaps, limiting procurement’s contribution to future competitiveness.

Given that materials and purchased parts typically account for 60–80% of manufacturing costs, a targeted, integrated category and part family strategy is essential to maintaining market competitiveness. Such a strategy must align cost, risk, and innovation levers while enabling procurement teams to achieve meaningful cost savings and operational efficiencies.

Strategically Develop Product and Category Groups. Unlock Synergies. Minimize Risks.

The impact of a well-crafted category and part family strategy is demonstrated by proven results from EFESO projects where such strategies were successfully developed and implemented:

• 11% reduction in part costs through platform modules and dual sourcing at a Tier-1 automotive supplier.
• 18% complexity reduction in electrical components and a 25% faster time-to-market at an automotive OEM.
• 9% savings enabled by a global PCP* category strategy and harmonized specifications at a high-tech manufacturer.

*PCP = Purchasing-Costing-Product

EFESO Value Promise: Tangible Results and Reduced Risks

Leverage EFESO’s unique end-to-end approach to establish effective category and part family management within your procurement organization. Together, we systematically segment categories, thoughtfully define part families, and anchor concrete implementation roadmaps. Staying true to our mission – Real Results, Together – we commit to clear, result-driven targets alongside you:

• 15% reduction in material costs through bundling and standardization.
• 30% lower complexity in bills of materials and supplier portfolios.
• +20% increase in innovation rate with key suppliers.
• Proven reduction of supply risk through dual and multi-sourcing strategies.
• Sustainable steering via category dashboards and KPI-driven review cycles.

We combine market, technology, and value engineering expertise with pragmatic execution skills – collaborative, data-driven, and precisely targeted.

We combine market, technology, and value engineering expertise with pragmatic execution skills – collaborative, data-driven, and precisely targeted.

EFESO Success Model: Structured Building Blocks for Impact

Our approach is based on a standardized project model that has proven successful at numerous industrial companies and continues to deliver measurable results. We bring together nine structured building blocks that combine critical elements such as analysis, strategy formulation, and implementation within a clear, actionable workflow. This ensures that potential improvements are quickly identified, prioritized, and – through clean governance and a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) – sustainably realized.