Manufacturing — Wylie Performance Partners

Where we usually start

These are the categories our work in manufacturing most often turns on. Not a checklist — a starting point for a conversation about which of them are worth examining at your operation.

Freight and logistics

Truckload and less-than-truckload rates, accessorial charges, fuel surcharge mechanics, mode selection and carrier mix. Contracts often outlive the network they were priced for.

Packaging

Corrugate, film, labels and protective materials. Specification, board grade and supplier consolidation usually matter more than unit price alone.

Operating supply and MRO

Consumables, tooling, safety and maintenance items bought across multiple sites and often multiple distributors, frequently without a single view of the whole.

Industrial chemicals

Process chemicals, lubricants, coatings and treatment programs, where the commercial terms and the technical specification are usually held by different people.

Insurance and risk

Property, casualty, cargo and workers’ compensation. Placement, structure and loss history each affect the outcome, and renewals are often accepted rather than tested.

Small parcel and uniforms

Parcel agreements with layered discounts and surcharges, and uniform and laundry programmes priced per garment per week across a long term.

What makes manufacturing different

Indirect spend moves with volume

A rate agreed at one production level can persist through several. The number grows, the terms do not, and nothing about the invoice makes that visible.

Specification and price sit with different people

Engineering owns what is bought. Procurement owns what it costs. Categories where both matter — packaging, chemicals, MRO — are the ones least likely to have been tested as a whole.

Multi-site buying fragments

Plants open, are acquired, or are brought online with their own suppliers. Consolidation is possible far more often than it is examined.

Continuity outranks price, correctly

A line stoppage costs more than any category saving is worth. Nothing we do puts supply at risk, and where an incumbent is the right answer we say so.

WHERE THE WORK GOES

Where our manufacturing work concentrates

Relative weight of the categories our manufacturing engagements most often address. Drawn from where the work actually goes, not from a published benchmark.

Freight and logistics

most

Packaging

Operating supply and MRO

Industrial chemicals

Insurance and risk

Small parcel and uniforms

Note. Relative weight only, shown without underlying counts. It reflects where engagements have concentrated, not what any organization should prioritise. Which categories matter at yours depends on your operating model and your current terms.

WHAT THE WIDER RESEARCH REPORTS

Manufacturing is one of the better-measured sectors.

We have not analyzed manufacturing spending the way we have analyzed the nonprofit sectors, so we have no benchmark of our own to offer here. What follows is published research about the wider market. It describes an industry, not your organization.

Indirect categories are commonly estimated at 20% to 40% of an organization’s total spend — large enough to matter, dispersed enough to be managed loosely.

McKinsey & Company, cited in indirect procurement literature

MRO is put at 5% to 9% of total indirect spend in typical manufacturing companies, and 10% to 20% in pharmaceutical manufacturing and utilities.

Penn State Center for Supply Chain Research, 171 survey respondents

Transportation spend for industrial manufacturers is commonly cited at 3% to 6% of revenue, rising to 6–10% in consumer packaged goods and higher again where cold chain applies.

Published logistics benchmarking, ranges vary by product density, ranges vary by product density and shipping profile

The share of organizations using more than 250 MRO suppliers rose from 6% to 15% in recent indirect procurement survey work.

RS Indirect Procurement Report, 2025

62% of respondents named budget pressure as their leading concern, against 31% the year before.

RS Indirect Procurement Report, 2025

A formal measure of indirect spend per $1,000 of revenue reports a median of $92.31 across its sample.

APQC, sample of 283 companies

None of these describe your operation. They describe ranges across an industry, drawn from samples that may or may not resemble you. We include them because they are the honest starting point when we have no benchmark of our own — and because a range is useful for orientation even when it cannot be a conclusion.

WHERE WE WOULD NOT START

Direct materials and anything that touches line continuity. A stoppage costs more than any category outcome is worth, and direct spend is usually managed by people who know the specification far better than we do. We work the categories around production, not production.

How the work runs

The same four stages as every engagement. The first costs nothing and you can stop there.

STAGE 01

Diagnostic

We examine current spend and terms in the categories worth examining. No fee, no commitment.

STAGE 02

Baseline

Agreed in writing before any work begins, at today’s volumes and terms.

STAGE 03

Execute

Incumbents first. Every supplier decision stays yours.

STAGE 04

Verify & Earn

Confirmed against your invoices. A share of verified recovery, and nothing else.