How a Global Manufacturer Cut $50M in One Year—Without Sacrificing Performance

Plan Across Time Horizons: From Tactical Cuts to Strategic Roadmap

A large multinational manufacturing company faced rising operational costs, poor vendor accountability, and inconsistent service delivery across its IT Shared Services environment. While some short-term fixes were attempted, they lacked structure and failed to create lasting impact.

K&B Global guided the organization through a time-phased cost optimization plan designed to deliver immediate savings while building the foundation for long-term success. By focusing on both immediate cost takeout and future-state alignment, the company avoided the trap of constant reactive cost-cutting and instead adopted a forward-looking roadmap that prioritized resilience, value, and visibility.

Prioritize by Strategic Value: Rightsizing Vendor Spend for Impact

The next step involved a focused evaluation of vendor spend through a value lens. Rather than applying across-the-board cuts, K&B worked with the client to identify high-performing vendors and business-critical services worth preserving—and redirected spend away from legacy contracts and low-impact providers.

Key actions included:

• A full audit of vendor contracts and SLAs across all towers
• Targeted consolidation through competitive RFPs and service realignment
• Contract renegotiations to reduce rates and secure rebates for underperformance
• Standardization of SOWs and pricing models to improve cost predictability
  
  

Optimize Through Collaboration: Building a Governance Engine

To ensure the savings and improvements would be sustained, K&B helped the organization establish a centralized Vendor Management Office (VMO) to oversee ongoing performance, cost accountability, and service quality across the enterprise. This effort required close collaboration across IT, finance, procurement, and operations to embed shared KPIs and align on strategic priorities.

K&B facilitated:

• Cross-functional planning workshops to align internal stakeholders
• Transparent vendor performance scorecards
• Real-time reporting and feedback loops
• Empowerment of the VMO as the coordinating authority for cost governance
  

What emerged was a culture shift—cost optimization became not just a finance initiative, but an enterprise-wide discipline.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

The transformation delivered immediate and long-lasting results:

• $50M+ in annual cost savings starting in year one
• 30% reduction in vendor rates through negotiation and rationalization
• 10% reduction in vendor headcount with improved SLA compliance
• A centralized VMO enabling continued performance and cost control

"K&B Global’s ability to quickly diagnose vendor inefficiencies and design a sustainable solution transformed our operations—driving both cost savings and improved service quality." - Client Executive

Next Steps

If your organization is ready to move beyond tactical cuts and embrace cost optimization as a lever for transformation, talk to K&B Global today. We’ll help you uncover opportunities hiding in plain sight—and turn them into long-term strategic value.