Sourcing

The process of sourcing products or services is the first and a very important step in the supply chain. Before you can procure goods, you have got to find the right suppliers who can meet all your requirements and deliver the goods at the right time to the end customer. The sourcing process may sound uncomplicated, but it is a very crucial and important process. 

Strategic planning in the sourcing process is central to cost structure, profit margins, and competitiveness for businesses of all sizes. We have a qualified team of professionals who are looking after product sourcing and evaluating new suppliers and factories who meet all criteria’s as per buyer’s checklist. 

The main sourcing process includes:

Finding New Suppliers: Internet in the sourcing process plays a vital role where on one hand it is easy to approach new vendors but the actual situation we get to know once our team visit them or see their production process. As a part of our process, we make sure to visit every new supplier to see their setup before we start working on any product enquiry with them.

Evaluating New Suppliers: We at ACE make sure all the suppliers with whom we are working have a proper social, ethical and environmental audit in place. Apart from that if there is any other specific requirement from client in terms of audit, certification of production process, we focus on that and shortlist the suppliers accordingly. 

Discussing Payment Terms: It is very important to discuss and negotiate on the payment terms with the new supplier and make sure they agree to them rather than creating a problem once the production starts or towards the completion of the order. Different buyers work on different payment terms, and it is important to have clarity over it in the beginning itself.

Validating Factory and Social Audits: Most of the suppliers/factories are audited factories and have either one of the social audits- SMETA/ BSCI or SA 8000  Apart from the Audits we also pay attention and source factories having certification like Oekotex, GOTS, GRS, Good weave, C-TPAT, ISO, FSC, RWS etc as they are ultimately helpful and provide an edge in the market.

Product Sourcing and Price Benchmarking: Once we have a clear idea on the factory and about the supplier and it has been passed by our team, we start working on the product enquiries with them to get the best and the most competitive pricing. Targets are given to factories depending on the price targets received from buyer and further multiple rounds of negotiations are done before the final and the best possible prices are submitted to buyer.