vendor-consolidation

name	vendor-consolidation
description	Identifies consolidation opportunities across the active vendor base — overlapping scopes, dual-source savings, single-source risk that should be split. Cross-walks spend data, category data, and vendor analyses to produce a consolidation register with recommended moves (consolidate from N to M suppliers, develop a secondary source, exit a vendor). Outputs HTML dashboard and Excel register. Use when the user says "vendor consolidation", "consolidate suppliers", "reduce supplier base", "consolidation opportunities", "supplier rationalization", "where do we have overlap", or after a spend analysis surfaces high supplier count in a category.
argument-hint	[--category <category>] [--mode consolidate|diversify|both] [--target-reduction <pct>]

/vallor:vendor-consolidation

Purpose

A 1,800-supplier base usually contains 200-400 vendors that could be consolidated into 60-120 with no operational impact and meaningful price benefits — and 10-30 single-source vendors that should be split for resilience. This skill finds both.

Load context

1. Read ~/.claude/plugins/config/vallor/CLAUDE.md:
   • ## Vendor / supplier classification → Consolidation principle
   • ## Categories under management
   • ## Risk management → Single-source register
2. Load the most recent spend analysis if one exists. If not, prompt:

   "I need a spend dataset to find consolidation opportunities. Run /vallor:spend-analysis <spend-file> first, or paste the vendor list with annual spend by category."

3. Apply the /vallor:design skill.

Ask the user for context (optional but encouraged)

Use the AskUserQuestion tool to gather optional context that materially changes which consolidations to recommend. Consolidation calls are political — calibration matters.

Up front (before building the candidate list): Ask 1-3 short questions when not obvious from the inputs:

• Scope (if not via --category): all categories / single category / a named list
• Mode (if not via --mode): consolidate (reduce supplier count) / diversify (split single-sources) / both
• Target supplier-count reduction band (if not via --target-reduction): 10-20% / 20-30% / 30-50% / aggressive
• Political constraints: untouchable vendors (incumbent relationships, parent-company affiliates), required exits
• Time horizon: 12 months / 3 years / strategic (5+ years)
• Risk appetite: prefer resilience (more suppliers) / prefer leverage (fewer suppliers)

Mid-flight (after building the candidate list): Once you've built the candidate consolidations, surface concrete asks before guessing on:

• Groups where the consolidation rationale is weak (overlap is partial, switching cost high) — keep, drop, or flag
• Single-source vendors where the user may already have a planned dual-source
• How aggressive to be on "preferred" tier consolidations vs "strategic" tier
• Whether to model headline savings vs run sensitivity (best case / base / worst)

Rules:

• Every question must offer a reasonable default the user can pick to skip ahead.
• Ask follow-ups when answers reveal more depth or a non-default choice.
• Cap a single round at ~3 questions.
• Skip when the user has signaled a fast / default run.

Workflow

Step 1 — Build the consolidation candidate list

For each category in the spend file:

• Group vendors by sub-category / SKU type / service domain.
• Identify groups with 3+ vendors covering similar scopes.
• For each group, surface:
  • Total spend across the group
  • Spend per vendor (Pareto)
  • Overlap factor (how much of vendor A's work could vendor B do)
  • Switching cost estimate

Step 2 — Build the diversification candidate list

For each single-source vendor:

• Annual spend with us
• Category criticality (Kraljic quadrant)
• Geographic concentration risk
• Their financial health (cross-reference vendor-analysis if available)
• Alternative suppliers in the market

Step 3 — Score and rank

Consolidate scoring (per group):

• Dollar opportunity (estimated price reduction × consolidated spend)
• Operational simplicity (fewer POs, fewer audits, less governance)
• Risk delta (does consolidating raise single-source risk?)
• Effort (qualification, switching cost, change management)

Diversify scoring (per single-source vendor):

• Risk reduction (what's the exposure if they fail)
• Cost premium (how much will dual-source actually cost)
• Time to qualify (months)
• Geographic / political reasoning

Step 4 — Recommend moves

For each opportunity, produce a recommended move:

• Consolidate from N to M — name the M suppliers, allocation %, switching plan, estimated savings, timeline.
• Develop secondary — name the target secondary, allocation %, qualification plan, estimated incremental cost, risk reduction.
• Exit — name the vendor to exit, transition plan, sunk cost recovery.

Step 5 — Risk overlay

Highlight any move that:

• Reduces supplier count BELOW the practice profile's bid-floor for that category.
• Concentrates spend with a vendor whose financial health is concerning.
• Eliminates a relationship that was preserved for political / relationship reasons (flag for human review before executing).

Output

Save to: ~/.claude/plugins/config/vallor/consolidation-analyses/<YYYY-MM-DD>/

Files:

• dashboard.html — interactive multi-tab view (Overview · Consolidate · Diversify · Risk overlay · Roadmap).
• register.xlsx — flat consolidation register, finance-friendly.
• executive-summary.md — one-page recommendation.

HTML dashboard tabs

Tab 1 — Overview. Big-number cards:

• Active suppliers
• Categories analyzed
• Estimated savings from consolidation
• Estimated diversification investment
• Net opportunity

Tab 2 — Consolidate. Sortable table of consolidation candidates. Each row clickable to a detail card with the recommended move, the named target suppliers, the timeline.

Tab 3 — Diversify. Sortable table of single-source vendors with risk score and recommended action.

Tab 4 — Risk overlay. Heat map: category × risk dimension. Categories where consolidation would raise risk are flagged.

Tab 5 — Roadmap. 12-month Gantt-style plan with moves prioritized by opportunity × effort.

Output rules

• Standalone HTML, Chart.js via CDN.
• Sanitize vendor names from the spend file (textContent only).
• All monetary values in the practice profile's base currency.
• Print-friendly.

Decision tree after delivery

1. Build the sourcing strategy for a specific consolidation move — /vallor:sourcing-strategy.
2. Open the renegotiation — /vallor:negotiation-report for the consolidator's incumbent.
3. Develop the secondary source — /vallor:rfq-creation for the qualification event.
4. Update the procurement profile — append findings to the single-source register.
5. Stop here — analysis is saved.

Examples

/vallor:vendor-consolidation

/vallor:vendor-consolidation --category "Logistics" --target-reduction 30