How a global material handling manufacturer unlocks up to €700,000 in annual savings potential with AI agents

About the company

This case study is about a global leader in material handling solutions headquartered in Europe. The group operates >15 plants worldwide and runs a central procurement strategy for both production and non-production material. Part of that focus is the so-called long tail – a large number of smaller suppliers with low purchasing volume, where conventional negotiations are often skipped.

The challenge

• Existing spend analytics identify savings potential through proactive notifications (e.g. when raw material prices change) that had never been acted on.

• More than 400 C-suppliers with small purchasing volumes (under €50k p.a.) go untouched for lack of capacity.

• Manual negotiations don't scale, even though the data is there.

• No standardized way of realizing the identified potential.

• Buyers' strategic focus leaves no room to also work through C-suppliers.

• On many orders, C-suppliers deviate from negotiated payment terms or Incoterms.

The insight: The long tail in particular holds substantial savings potential – but it can only be captured through consistent automation.

The solution

Together with Zalion, the company introduced an AI agent to prepare negotiations with C-suppliers automatically and carry them out efficiently – based on existing spend data, without deep IT integration. The focus is on price adjustments and payment terms.

1. Identifying potential – The agent automatically analyzes and filters incoming savings opportunities for relevance and feasibility. Once prioritized, negotiation approaches are identified using a library of 13 levers. It also automatically flags any deviation from payment terms or Incoterms.

2. Preparing negotiation emails – Based on the analysis, the agent generates negotiation-ready email drafts that buyers only need to send.

3. Focus on untouched C-suppliers – Applied specifically to low-volume suppliers that had never been negotiated with before.

4. Human approval – Nothing is sent fully automatically – buyers review and send the emails, which increases acceptance and safety and provides valuable feedback.

Good to know: The rollout started in three pilot plants and is now being extended step by step to all 17 plants and to further supplier groups (B-suppliers, non-production material) – with no additional IT interfaces or drawn-out rollouts.