Title

Restoring control and insight to supplier pricing with AI in a global manufacturer

Section
Case study
Summary

Many procurement teams face the same challenge: supplier pricing data is scattered or inconsistent across multiple systems, making it impossible to know what to trust. For one global industrial company, this came to a head around “price keys”, the organisation’s internal identifiers linking items, specifications, and supplier pricing conditions across SAP and PDM platforms. What should have been a source of insights was instead causing confusion and inefficiency.  

Recognising the damaging impact this was having on the procurement team’s decision-making and negotiating power, the company partnered with Efficio to regain control of its pricing data. The solution was to implement an AI-enabled framework to manage the client’s price keys, ultimately strengthening procurement data governance and unlocking new commercial value. 

The challenge: Limited control over supplier pricing data 

Following years of growth, the client was sitting on millions of component price keys. These identifiers were inconsistent across platforms, resulting in highly variable data and uncontrolled vocabulary.  

The impact was wide-reaching. Procurement struggled to access accurate pricing information, slowing down even the most basic of analyses. This reduced visibility weakened strategic sourcing decisions and hindered the procurement team's ability to negotiate effectively, also creating governance and compliance risks.  

While “price keys” are specific to our client, the underlying issue is a common one: fragmented pricing data that limits insights and obstructs effective decision-making.

The approach: Custom-built AI automation at scale  

Efficio designed and deployed an AI-enabled framework to automate, standardise, and validate price key data at scale.

This combined several AI-powered modules:  

1

Data routine checker


AI-driven validation to detect anomalies and errors in price key records and prevent poor-quality data from entering the system.

2

Usage and pricing analytics


Enhanced insight into price key usage across 50 million-plus purchase order records to distinguish active price keys from obsolete ones.

3

Automated renaming and standardisation

An LLM-powered pipeline processing tens of thousands of records, harmonising and restructuring data for consistency and analytics.

By automating core data quality and analytics processes, internal teams were freed up to focus on higher-value, strategic activities. Looking ahead, the client plans to extend the solution to support AI-assisted price key creation and maintenance based on supplier quotations, further reducing manual, administrative work while strengthening upstream governance.  

Results

Greater efficiency, governance, and commercial impact

By implementing a scalable AI-enabled solution, the company transformed its procurement operations, moving from labour-intensive, manual processes to a robust digital framework that drives efficiency, compliance, and commercial advantage. 

Increased efficiency and insight

For the first time, Procurement gained visibility of how supplier pricing rules were actually applied across different systems and time periods, supporting more informed sourcing decisions. The new solution also eliminated the need for manual data joining and cleaning, enabling teams to focus on value-adding tasks.  

Reduced governance risk

The solution introduced auditable, controlled processes that reduce risk and improve governance. Each AI-generated output included clear reasoning and flags, highlighting duplicates, ambiguous mappings, and out-of-policy items for review, increasing transparency and auditability.  

Stronger commercial impact

Harmonised price keys enabled stronger negotiations and created opportunities for savings through volume consolidation – and the solution has been built to be applied at scale. The adaptable framework supports a global roll-out of standardised price key governance, establishing a robust foundation for future digital procurement initiatives across all the company’s international locations.   


Efficio’s collaborative approach enabled the client to move from fragmented pricing data to a controlled, scalable source of insights – supporting more confident decision-making, stronger procurement governance, and a robust foundation for ongoing digital transformation.