Capacity: The New Currency of Supplier Relationships
Cross-functional collaboration to integrate risk, finance, operations, and ESG priorities
More importantly, they must redefine what “value” means. In 2025, value is not about
price. It’s about predictability, agility, and trust. This is the inflection point. For
procurement to rise, it must rewire how it thinks, how it decides, and how it leads.
The procurement function that
can see and respond first—wins
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EXPERT PROCUREMENT VOICE
In 2025, capacity is no longer assumed — it is earned. Supplier decisions are no longer driven by
demand alone but by strategic calculus: geopolitical alignment, regional risk, and long-term
relationship value. In many cases, U.S. and EU buyers are being deprioritized in favor of more
predictable markets.
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According to Project44 and UPS reports:
Global lead times have increased 19% on average
Supplier prioritization has shifted, with Chinese and Southeast Asian suppliers giving
preference to intra-Asia buyers
Materials allocation — especially for semiconductors, lithium, and EV components — is now a
competitive, bid-based process
This creates a critical pivot point: procurement must now manage suppliers not as vendors, but
as partners — and even as strategic assets whose capacity is constrained and discretionary.
The Strategic Takeaway: Procurement Has No Comfort Zone Left
The trifecta of rising cost, mounting complexity, and constrained capacity has shattered
procurement’s ability to operate on autopilot. The “trusted supplier base” built during the
globalization boom is no longer reliable. Contracts written pre-2020 are increasingly
obsolete. Forecasts based on past behavior are irrelevant.
Procurement leaders must now operate with:
Tactical dexterity to manage daily volatility
Scenario fluency to prepare for future policy and market shifts
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