14-Day Diagnostic Sprint
Know where the money is. Know what to do next.
A focused assessment of supplier and service-provider spend that gives management a quantified opportunity portfolio, clear priorities, and a practical decision on what is worth pursuing.
The financial case
A small percentage of a large spend base can change the year.
Rooney Advisors does not apply a generic savings percentage to your P&L. The sprint builds the actual supplier-cost baseline, tests specific commercial and operating opportunities, and separates credible value from wishful thinking.
Context: supplier-related production inputs represented roughly 55% of U.S. manufacturing shipment value in the Census-based 2021 data reported in NIST’s 2025 manufacturing economy report.
What the sprint answers
Is there enough real opportunity to justify action?
The sprint separates credible financial opportunities from noise before management commits time, political capital, or implementation resources.
- Where supplier cost has moved without sufficient challenge
- Which opportunities are recurring, one-time, or working-capital related
- What evidence supports each opportunity
- Which actions can be pursued without damaging quality or continuity
- What management should prioritize over the next 90 days
What gets examined
Four places ordinary spend becomes avoidable cost.
The review follows the economics across price, demand, terms, and execution rather than relying on broad benchmark assumptions.
Pricing, fees, and exceptions
Increases, discounts, payment terms, minimums, fees, and exceptions that have escaped consistent challenge.
Supplier and contract fragmentation
Similar needs spread across too many vendors or agreements, weakening leverage and obscuring terms.
Freight, specifications, and demand
Service levels, legacy specifications, rush orders, and buying patterns that add cost or tie up cash.
Renewals and purchasing controls
Auto-renewals, unclear approvals, exceptions, and off-contract buying that allow avoidable cost to continue.
The work
A fast assessment. Not a shallow one.
The 14-day clock begins when usable data is available. Perfect data is not required, but the conclusions must be defensible.
Build the fact base
Organize supplier, category, contract, invoice, and demand data into a usable cost baseline.
Test the economics
Identify price drift, fragmented demand, commercial gaps, and operating practices worth investigating.
Size the opportunity
Separate evidence-backed value by confidence, effort, risk, timing, and financial impact.
Set the action path
Give management the priorities, owners, dependencies, and first moves for the next 90 days.
What management receives
A decision package built for action.
- Executive financial case and defensible spend baseline
- Ranked opportunity portfolio with supporting evidence
- Supplier and category action briefs
- 90-day priorities, owners, and dependencies
- Executive working session to pressure-test the findings
Commercial structure: a fixed fee scoped and agreed in advance based on the data, supplier complexity, and areas under review.
Start with the business need