A practical guide to cost intelligence for volatile markets

Procurement leaders are under more pressure than ever — from executives demanding cost justification, from suppliers pushing through price increases, and from a volatile market where tariffs, labor shifts, and input cost swings can change overnight. The expectation is clear: procurement should protect margins, manage risk, and advise the business with confidence.

Most teams are still working with two imperfect tools. Spend analytics show where money went. Commodity indexes show what's happening in the market. But neither explains why the cost of the specific products you buy is changing — and neither gives you the data to push back on a supplier, protect a margin commitment, or brief your CFO with confidence.

That gap is where procurement shifts from reactive to strategic.

Cost intelligence closes it. By modeling the actual cost drivers behind the products you buy — materials, labor, energy, manufacturing inputs, tariffs — procurement teams can understand in real time what a product should cost, why a price changed, and whether a supplier increase is justified or inflated. That's not a report. That's a defensible position

In this webinar, Daniela Osio, CEO and Co-Founder of Dalinea, will show how leading procurement organizations are using cost intelligence to:

• Protect margins — identify where you're overpaying before a contract renewal, not after.
• Manage risk — understand your exposure to raw material volatility, tariff shifts, and single-source dependencies before they become P&L problems.
• Lead supplier negotiations — challenge price increase requests with cost-level data instead of market benchma.
• Advise finance with confidence — bring a forward-looking cost view to the business, not just historical spend summaries.
• Move procurement from a cost center to a strategic function — with the data to anticipate cost changes, not just explain them

Attendees will walk away with a framework for understanding where cost intelligence fits in their current stack, what it unlocks that spend analytics and benchmarks cannot, and how to use industry-level cost insights to become the most informed voice in the room when supply chain decisions are being made.

Learning Objectives:

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Seeing Shortages Before They Hit: AI in Materials Management 

Most materials issues don’t start as emergencies; they start as weak signals that get lost in the noise of daily execution. This session examines how the application of AI to support proactive materials management issue resolution is changing how risks are detected, prioritized, and addressed, helping supply chain teams surface problems earlier, focus on the decisions that truly matter, and stay ahead of shortages and excess before they disrupt production.

We are pleased to welcome Nicolas Moreno-Cely, Senior Director of Materials Planning and Operational Excellence at Daikin and Richard Lebovitz, Chief Strategy Officer at LeanDNA as featured speakers for this session. Together, they will combine industry research and real-world experience to examine how supply chain teams are applying AI to proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve materials issues before they impact production or customer delivery.

Presentation Outline

The Materials Management Problem Hiding in Plain Sight
A look at why materials issues surface too late - how disconnected signals and manual prioritization slow response and increase supply execution risk

Applying AI to Proactive Materials Management Issue Resolution
How the application of AI is changing the way materials issues are detected, ranked, and addressed - shifting teams from reacting to disruptions to resolving root causes earlier.

What the Data Is Revealing Across Global Manufacturers
Richard will share insights from a recent study of global manufacturing leaders, highlighting where materials management breaks down and where teams are gaining an advantage.

Execution in Practice: Materials Management at Daikin
A moderated discussion with Nico on how Daikin approaches materials planning and execution - focusing on the signals they pay attention to, how decisions are made, and the impact on inventory, production flow, and delivery performance.

Audience Q&A
An open discussion with attendees to explore challenges, lessons learned, and practical takeaways that can be applied across manufacturing environments.

Who should attend?
This session is designed for supply chain and operations practitioners and leaders looking to strengthen supply chain execution, improve decision-making on the factory floor, and connect day-to-day materials management to broader business outcomes. If any of these challenges sound familiar, you will not want to miss this session!

Location
Daikin Applied
3033 Campus Drive
Plymouth, MN 55441