From Piece Price to Economic Value

Supply chains are no longer optimized by piece price alone. Geopolitical disruption, freight volatility, tariffs, climate exposure and longer lead times are changing the economics of global sourcing. A supplier at €100/unit may not be a €100 decision.

The real calculation is: Piece Price + Freight + Tariffs / Duties + Customs & Logistics + Quality + Inventory + Carbon / CBAM exposure = Total Acquisition Cost (TAC). Then ask: BUY → TAC vs. MAKE → Total Manufacturing Cost (TMC).

But we should go further. A sourcing decision must also show its Net EBITDA Impact, its Cash / Working Capital Impact and the Invested Capital it ties up — in other words, EVA. And it must distinguish real savings from cost avoidance.

Sometimes the answer is not a new supplier. It may be to localize, consign, buffer, bond, dual source, or renegotiate the contract.

The objective is not to find the cheapest supplier. It is to design the supply architecture that creates the highest risk-adjusted economic value.

At Optiroq, we connect supplier quotations, commodity indices, freight, tariffs, inventory, risk, Make vs Buy, EBITDA, Cash and EVA into one Procurement Intelligence framework. From RFQ analysis to economic decision-making.

Optimize the supply architecture — not just the supplier.