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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nSpending time on procurement is one of the biggest barriers to empowering engineering teams to focus on what they do best. And ultimately, it\u2019s bad for business \u2014 this overlap in duties can have a significant downstream effect on time-to-market and bottom-line profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s dive into this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Procurement Complexity Has Quietly Grown <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Geopolitical instability, tariff shifts, and raw material volatility are all adding administrative burdens to engineers\u2019 plates. With 98% of leaders actively adjusting sourcing strategies<\/a> due to raw material costs, the pressure ends up flowing downstream to engineers, which slows down timelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when engineers are stretched too thin, quality suffers. This inefficiency in procurement slows down time to market, which leads to a major competitive disadvantage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aligning the goals of engineering, procurement, and supply managers is one way to help navigate some of the complexity. For one thing, procurement teams should always work side-by-side with engineers during the product design and assembly process to ensure faster production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, it\u2019s about breaking down silos and increasing visibility throughout the design phase. And fortunately, AI has great potential in bridging the gap between all teams for more efficient workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI-enabled sourcing tools can handle complexity at scale, freeing engineers to focus on what they were hired to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fictiv report also found that AI is being implemented across manufacturing and supply chain workflows<\/a>. AI-enabled tools can handle quoting, factory selection, DFM feedback, and supplier vetting automatically \u2014 work that engineers are currently doing manually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, platforms like Fictiv<\/a> offer bulk BOM configuration, auto DFM for sheet metal and injection molding, and a centralized parts library that replaces spreadsheet tracking, which all directly targets the administrative tasks eating engineer hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the standard and configurable parts side, MISUMI’s online configurator lets engineers spec, price, and order components in minutes. This allows both engineer and procurement teams to speed up the part sourcing process and provide more options for getting to a fulfilled BOM faster, all within budget and timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more of these tasks that can be automated and improved, the more time engineers get back for the work that actually moves products forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your engineers are spending half a workday every week on procurement-related tasks, that’s a critical strategic problem. At scale, that lost time has a direct impact on your company’s ability to compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This becomes even more critical when you consider where manufacturing is heading. On-shoring and regional supply chain resilience ranked as the top strategy for 2026, but that shift only succeeds if the teams executing it have the bandwidth to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organizations pulling ahead are the ones approaching the supply chain differently. This starts with giving engineers their time back and finding other ways to streamline the process, from prototype to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Dave Evans, President and CEO of MISUMI Americas, put it: “When are we going to treat supply chain as strategic? Until supply chain is recognized as a strategic center, we won’t unlock the future of manufacturing.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n MISUMI and Fictiv<\/a> joined forces to empower engineering teams with an end-to-end part procurement solution. Since MISUMI acquired Fictiv in 2025, the two companies have been building toward a unified solution for engineering and sourcing teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fictiv’s AI-enabled digital platform handles the complexity of custom parts sourcing while MISUMI’s catalog of over 80 sextillion configurable components lets engineers find, spec, and order standard parts fast. Together, they reduce the number of vendors, touchpoints, and administrative hours standing between your engineers and the work they were hired to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Save time, sharpen your strategy, and avoid falling behind. Download the 2026 State of Manufacturing and Supply Chain report<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Survey Methodology and Respondent Profile<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2026 State of Manufacturing and Supply Chain report is based on a survey of 321 director-level and above manufacturing leaders across production, engineering, supply chain, R&D, and digital innovation, with strong representation from mid-to-large companies and key sectors like MedTech, Climate Tech, EV, and Robotics. It tracks trends from 2020\u20132026, with especially reliable year-over-year comparisons between 2025 and 2026 due to a consistent respondent profile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Based on the 2026 Manufacturing and Supply Chain Report, engineers spend more than four hours on procurement. Here’s how manufacturing leaders are solving the issue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":16616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[1134,1135,1467,1131,1136,1132,1433,1133],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16639,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16615\/revisions\/16639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.misumi-ec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Implementing AI and Other Solutions Into Design Workflows <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhat All This Means for You and Your Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Empowering Engineers With an End-To-End Hardware Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.misumiusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-CTA-Buttons-1.png\")
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