Experienced CEM Procurement Teams Offer More Benefit Than You Might Think

What makes a successful procurement team? Most probably a large scale global reach combined with a long list of reliable suppliers, an effective purchasing strategy and a strong customer-focused and driven team.

Procurement in the global electronics industry is an ever-changing challenge, with many obstacles and risks. Obtaining the right parts and components, in the right quantities, in demanding time frames is of fundamental importance. Effective CEMs understand these dynamics and can mitigate for many of the supply chain issues an OEM might face.

Reliable Suppliers

With high-level industry experience and established sourcing relationships through original manufacturers or approved distributors, a CEMs purchasing team can offer the confidence of the required traceability and reliability.

With a proactive approach to component obsolescence, CEMs can prevent breaks in supply for OEMs by monitoring component end-of-life notices, advising of last-time-buy opportunities and options for alternative parts.

CEMs with an extensive history and experience will generally have a larger list of suppliers, as well as more trustworthy working relationships. The smoother the relationship between supplier and CEM, the greater the chance of attaining the most attractive prices on the market.

Strategic Purchasing

Working with supply chain partners to secure economies of scale, through the identification of cross-build and cross-customer parts, enables CEMs to pass significant cost savings downstream to OEMs. Long-term fixed-price supply agreements offer OEMs stability against the uncertainty of market fluctuations.

Customer Focus

Component stockholding by CEMs, along with robust demand analysis and forecasting, limits the risk of stock-outs and the resulting OEM production downtime.

Customer-focused supply services including Kanban systems, buffer stocks and kitting, enable a flexible, lean and cost-effective source of supply for OEM customers.

The procurement value offered by successful CEMs assists OEMs in maintaining and increasing market share in increasingly competitive global marketplaces.