Supply Chain & Logistics

Supply Chain & Logistics Model

Protect your margins from the volatile costs of moving goods. We audit your freight expenses, vendor contracts, and shipping rates to find immediate savings. Beyond just cutting costs, we identify risks in your supplier base and the impact of external factors like tariffs, ensuring your supply chain is both lean and resilient.

This service examines the movement and procurement of goods. We perform Landed Cost Audits to calculate the total price of a product from the factory to your door, including Freight and Shipping Rate Optimization. Additionally, we conduct Supplier Concentration Risk Assessments and Vendor Contract Benchmarking to identify pricing variances and opportunities for more favorable payment terms.

Questions We Solve

I don’t know my exact profit margin on a per-product basis.

Our overhead is just one big “lump sum” and I don’t know which department is most expensive.

We have a lot of cash tied up in inventory but don’t know what it’s costing us to keep it.

I am unsure how much my costs will increase if my sales double tomorrow.

Focuses

Total Landed Cost (TLC) Modeling: Calculating the true cost of an item by the time it reaches your door, including the purchase price, freight, insurance, warehousing, and duties.

Service Acquisition Costing: For service firms, we analyze the “all-in” cost of third-party vendors, including implementation fees, training costs (time and capital), API usage, and seat-based licensing.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Moving beyond the initial invoice to include the long-term costs of maintaining, supporting, and managing a specific supply chain or vendor relationship.

Carrier Rate Benchmarking & Mode Optimization: Comparing your current shipping rates against market averages and evaluating cost-saving shifts (e.g., LTL vs. FTL or Sea vs. Air).

Route & Distribution Efficiency: Analyzing the geographic flow of your goods or personnel to identify “mileage waste” and consolidate shipments or travel.

Volatility Impact Analysis: Quantifying how shifts in fuel surcharges, peak-season premiums, and accessorial charges impact your bottom line.

Volume Consolidation Analysis: Identifying opportunities to group spend with fewer vendors to increase negotiating leverage and reduce unit costs.

Vendor Scorecarding & Performance Costing: Evaluating partners based on price, quality, and on-time delivery to quantify the financial cost of a “low-performing” vendor.

Supplier Concentration & Dependency Risk: Measuring the financial exposure of relying on a single critical supplier or software platform and the cost of establishing a “Plan B.”

Lead Time Variability Costing: Quantifying the “cost of waiting”—calculating the financial impact of production delays or project stalls caused by unreliable vendor timelines.

Safety Stock & Buffer Optimization: Balancing the cost of “stock-outs” against the cost of carrying excess safety stock, ensuring your capital isn’t trapped in “just-in-case” inventory.

Expediting & “Rush” Fee Tracking: Auditing the frequency and cost of emergency shipping or rush service fees to identify systemic planning failures.

Tariff, Duty, & Trade Compliance Audit: Analyzing the financial impact of international trade codes (HS Codes) and identifying opportunities for duty mitigation or drawbacks.

Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) Process Costing: Calculating the administrative labor cost required to process a single Purchase Order or reconcile a vendor invoice.

Contract Compliance Audit: Ensuring that the rates, discounts, and terms agreed upon in your contracts are actually being applied to your invoices.

Translate Procurement Friction into Negotiating Power.

Most mid-market firms leave money on the table by managing vendors in silos. We use the ABI Engine to consolidate your volume and benchmark your rates against market reality, ensuring every contract term and early-payment discount is working in your favor. Move beyond simple cost-cutting and turn your procurement process into a driver of strategic growth.

Maximize Your Negotiating Leverage — Request an E4 Intervention

Supply Chain & Logistics