Schlemmer Group
Schlemmer Group Case Study | €1.2M Savings Identified
The Situation
The Schlemmer Group is a global powerhouse supplying innovative solutions to the automotive, industrial and appliances sectors, headquartered in Poing, Germany. As a key player in these highly competitive markets, Schlemmer has experienced accelerated global growth, driven by customer demand for a more diverse and technologically advanced product portfolio. This international expansion brought fresh challenges: the need to identify new, cost-effective suppliers, enhance procurement agility, and ensure all sourcing initiatives adhered to the group's stringent sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards. With the complexity of global supply chains increasing, Schlemmer sought a partner with deep expertise to support several high-profile strategic procurement projects across multiple regions.
The Transformation
Schlemmer appointed Pro Outsourcing to lead a range of procurement transformation initiatives, focusing on global sourcing and new product introduction (NPI). The engagement, running across 2014 and 2015, was contracted to manage several strategic procurement projects including market research and the global sourcing of new product lines from the Far East. Our team blended global market intelligence with sourcing expertise to deliver immediate value. This included comprehensive global market assessments to identify competitive and sustainable sourcing regions aligned with Schlemmer's quality, compliance and operational requirements; the identification and qualification of suppliers across diverse international markets in full alignment with their sustainability, CSR and ethical sourcing guidelines; rigorous supplier audits across several territories to validate manufacturing capability, environmental compliance and global delivery capacity before onboarding; and full management of the RFQ process across multiple product lines to enable data-driven supplier selection based on value, quality and long-term scalability. The work centred on de-risking the global supply chain while embedding procurement excellence into Schlemmer's sourcing processes.
The Result
The programme improved company performance and financial results, identifying €1.2M in additional savings across newly sourced and existing product lines. Further benefits included the identification of optimal global regions for sourcing key new product lines, ensuring both cost-effectiveness and compliance with Schlemmer's sustainability and CSR benchmarks; the successful onboarding of new strategic suppliers capable of manufacturing to exacting standards and delivering across the international distribution network; and enhanced supply chain resilience throughout. This enabled Schlemmer to improve supply chain efficiency, reduce time-to-market for new products and strengthen their global competitiveness.