Since 2020, the whole world has been affected by COVID-19. Companies in the global supply chain are confronted with unknown challenges; among other things, costs for many types of metals have increased enormously, and no relief is yet visible in overseas transportation costs. Moreover, the exchange rate, e.g., EUR/CNY or EUR/USD, is unfavorable.

Since our founding 30 years ago, we, bdp Mechanical Components (MC), have been providing our customers with high-quality mechanical components at the most competitive prices and streamlining their supply chains when sourcing from producers globally. It has always been our priority to continuously develop and optimize our activities and solutions for customer acquisition.

When sourcing outside Europe, many companies fear that a lack of quality can lead to incalculable costs or supply risks. With the right "tools", this is not the case.

The demands on modern purchasing have changed considerably in recent years, especially due to Corona and political tensions. Not only the technical possibilities through the use of modern media have significantly changed the activities in purchasing. The demands on the person of the buyer have also become noticeably more complex. In this article, we want to analyze the change in purchasing organizations from a pure procurement department to a modern supply chain management and take a closer look at associated changes in the company.