About the client
equipment procurement across regional teams, 40+ suppliers, and 1,500+ cabinet SKUs, with cabinet spend already exceeding €100M and annual order volumes past 150,000.
Refrigeration units and electrical machinery aren’t just capital purchases for a food & beverage manufacturing business; they’re revenue-enabling assets that sit at the point of sale. But without a consistent operating model, electric equipment procurement was being managed across emails, spreadsheets, procurement systems, and regional teams, with product specifications, supplier submissions, pricing approvals, buyer ordering, CAPEX planning, and post-delivery issues all handled separately.
The challenge
A high-value, high-volume equipment and food manufacturing machinery supply chain with no controlled operating model
The business needed a better way to manage cabinet procurement across three connected stages: before ordering, during procurement, and after delivery.
What was holding procurement back:
- Suppliers had no structured way to submit machinery and cabinet equipment specifications, commercial details, pricing, and customizations
- Procurement could not validate supplier information before buyers placed orders
- No segregation of duties existed between suppliers, procurement, and buyers
- Buyers risked ordering from incorrect specifications, unapproved pricing, or outdated commercial terms
- Regional variations, country-specific logistics, and tender-linked pricing added further complexity
- Visibility into post-delivery issues across the global food manufacturing machinery and cabinet ecosystem was limited
- Global procurement had no centralized way to track supplier performance or recurring problems
The challenge was not simply to digitize procurement.
It was to create a controlled operating model for a high-value, high-volume heavy food manufacturing equipment supply chain.
The solution
Structure supplier submissions. Gate procurement approval. Control buyer ordering.
ewiz procure was configured to support a controlled cabinet procurement workflow, with each stakeholder (suppliers, procurement, and buyers) operating through a common portal with a defined role.
1. Supplier-led product onboarding
Suppliers upload validated product specifications, commercial details, and pricing into ewiz procure.
Capabilities included:
- Structured supplier submission for specifications, commercial details, and pricing
- Support for available customizations
- A single intake point, replacing fragmented files, offline updates, and email-based coordination
This gave procurement a structured submission to review, instead of relying on fragmented files, offline updates, or email-based coordination.
2. Procurement approval gate
Once product and pricing details are submitted, they move into a procurement review queue.
Capabilities included:
- Validation of cabinet specifications
- Pricing accuracy checks
- Alignment checks against awarded eTender terms or agreed contracts
- Commercial readiness review before buyer ordering
Only after procurement approval is a product activated for ordering.
3. Controlled buyer ordering
Approved products are made available to designated buyers via an easy to use procurement portal.
Capabilities included:
- Buyer access limited to a validated catalog
- Pre-approved specifications and pricing built into every order
- Removal of buyer access to unapproved products or outdated pricing
This ensured buyers could only order from a validated catalog, with approved specifications and pricing already in place.
4. eTendering support
eTendering was a key capability added as part of the broader cabinet procurement process.
Capabilities included:
- Structured supplier participation in tenders
- Commercial evaluation support
- Tender-linked pricing management
This helped procurement manage supplier participation, commercial evaluation, and tender-linked pricing more systematically.
5. Roadmap: complaint redressal and CAPEX planning
As the program scaled, we identified two additional opportunities to extend visibility beyond the core catalog and ordering workflow.
Complaint redressal: A centralized process was defined to let buyers raise concerns against delivered orders, with each complaint linked to a specific order, auto-tagged to the relevant supplier using the delivery order number, classified by issue type, routed to the supplier for response, and escalated to procurement if unresolved within the defined timeframe.
CAPEX request planning: A module was defined to help teams estimate expected cabinet spend before procurement, using current-season prices to select cabinets and customizations, view expected ex-works pricing, include destination-country logistics costs, add expected customization or freight costs where values are missing, and calculate the expected budget for planned purchases.
Capabilities included:
- Order-linked, auto-tagged complaint routing and escalation
- Supplier responsiveness tracking
- CAPEX estimation using current-season cabinet equipment pricing
- Destination-country logistics cost inclusion
- Budget calculation for planned cabinet purchases
This moved refrigerator equipment procurement toward pre-planning and gave global procurement a path toward supplier-performance visibility and budget forecasting.
The impact
From fragmented cabinet procurement to a governed, end-to-end operating model
With a structured, role-based workflow in place, cabinet procurement moved from fragmented coordination to a controlled, auditable process.
- 100% of cabinets routed through procurement approval before buyer access
- 1,500+ cabinet SKUs unified into a single source of truth across global teams
- ~40–50% reduction in manual supplier onboarding effort for 30+ suppliers
- €100M in cabinet spend under improved pricing accuracy and compliance
- 150,000+ cabinet orders with end-to-end visibility
A high-value, high-volume cabinet supply chain moved from fragmented, email-and-spreadsheet coordination to a governed operating model with built-in pricing control and full order visibility.
Why it worked
Suppliers had a structured submission process
Product specifications, commercial details, and pricing were uploaded through a defined workflow instead of fragmented files, offline updates, or email-based coordination.
Procurement had stronger control before buyer access
Procurement did not make products visible to buyers until it validated specifications, pricing, and alignment with awarded eTender terms.
Buyers ordered from an approved catalog
Buyer access was limited to products that had already passed procurement review, removing the risk of ordering from incorrect specifications or outdated pricing.
Pricing governance improved
Procurement could validate pricing before products became available for ordering, reducing the risk of incorrect or outdated pricing being used across regional teams.
The process created a foundation for broader visibility
The roadmap extended beyond catalog approval into complaint tracking and CAPEX planning, giving procurement a path toward better supplier-performance visibility and budget forecasting.
