Granite Materials: One Supplier, One Region, One Problem

Operations
medium40 min0 submissions
Bain
Scenario

Granite Materials makes building materials products for India. A single supplier provides a component representing ₹90 Cr of annual spend — around a third of bill-of-materials cost — and there is no qualified alternative.

Procurement has found a second source. It would cost about 6.2% more per unit and take 8 months to qualify. The incumbent has hinted that splitting the volume would cost the company its current pricing tier.

Risk modelling puts the chance of a material disruption at that supplier at roughly 19% a year, with an expected outage of 8 weeks. Contribution margin at risk is about ₹0.43 Cr a week if the line stops.

The alternative supplier's plant is in the same region as the incumbent's.

Supporting data

risk model

expected outage weeks
8
annual disruption probability pct
19
contribution margin at risk per week cr
0.43

alternative

region
same as incumbent
qualification months
8
unit cost premium pct
6.2

current sourcing

suppliers
1
annual spend cr
90
share of bom pct
33
Your task

Advise the COO. Your answer should provide:

  1. Analysis — price the insurance. What does dual sourcing cost, and what expected loss does it avoid?
  2. Risks — including whether this second source actually reduces the risk you care about.
  3. Recommendation — a sourcing structure and volume split, with the trigger to revisit.

State any assumptions you make.

Ready to move forward? Up next: Verity Insurance: How Much Stock Is the Right Amount?Next question
How you'll be graded

80 points, 60% to pass.

  • recommendation15
  • market analysis20
  • risk assessment25
  • financial analysis20
Hint
Reveal suggested structure

Expected loss = probability x duration x margin per week. Compare against the annual premium of holding a second source. Then test whether the sources are correlated.