Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: April 7, 2026

 

Sourcing case study interviews are a specific type of consulting case interview that tests your ability to analyze procurement spend, evaluate suppliers, and recommend cost reduction strategies. According to Glassdoor, over 40% of operations-focused consulting interviews now include at least one sourcing or procurement question.

 

In this article, you will learn exactly what sourcing cases are, which firms ask them, a step-by-step approach to solve any sourcing case, and two fully worked examples with real math.

 

But first, a quick heads up:

 

McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top firms accept less than 1% of applicants every year. If you want to triple your chances of landing interviews and 8x your chances of passing them, watch my free 40-minute training.

 

What Is a Sourcing Case Study Interview?

 

A sourcing case study interview is a consulting case interview focused on how a company acquires raw materials, components, or services from external suppliers. Your job is to analyze the client's procurement spend, identify inefficiencies, and recommend strategies to reduce costs or improve performance.

 

These cases are a subset of broader supply chain and operations cases. While a general supply chain case interview might cover logistics, warehousing, or distribution, sourcing cases zoom in specifically on the procurement function.

 

In my experience at Bain, sourcing cases were among the most common operations cases we worked on for clients. According to McKinsey's operations practice, procurement optimization projects typically deliver 8% to 15% savings on addressable spend.

 

Here is how sourcing cases compare to other operations case types:

 

Feature	Sourcing Case	Supply Chain Case	Operations Case
Primary Focus	Procurement spend, supplier selection, make-vs-buy	End-to-end product flow from supplier to customer	Process efficiency, capacity, throughput
Key Question	How can we reduce what we pay for inputs?	How do we get products to customers faster and cheaper?	How do we produce more with less waste?
Common Levers	Supplier consolidation, contract renegotiation, spec changes	Network redesign, inventory optimization, logistics	Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, automation
Typical Savings	8% to 15% of addressable spend	5% to 20% of total supply chain cost	10% to 30% efficiency improvement
Firms That Favor This	AlixPartners, Kearney, Big 4, MBB	MBB, Kearney, Big 4	MBB, Oliver Wyman, L.E.K.

 

Which Firms Ask Sourcing Case Study Interviews?

 

Sourcing cases appear at a wide range of consulting firms, but they are especially common at firms with strong operations practices. Based on Glassdoor interview reports and my experience coaching hundreds of candidates, these are the firms most likely to give you a sourcing case:

 

• AlixPartners: Known for turnaround and restructuring work, AlixPartners frequently gives sourcing and procurement optimization cases in interviews. Their sourcing cases often focus on cost reduction under tight timelines.

 

• Kearney (formerly A.T. Kearney): Kearney built its reputation on procurement consulting and remains one of the top firms in this space. Expect detailed sourcing cases with heavy quantitative analysis.

 

• McKinsey, BCG, and Bain: MBB firms include sourcing cases as part of broader operations or strategy cases. You might get a profitability case where the root cause turns out to be procurement spend.

 

• Big 4 (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG): Advisory teams at Big 4 firms regularly work on procurement transformation projects. Their interview cases often mirror real client work in this area.

 

• Boutique operations firms: Firms like GEP, Maine Pointe, and Efficio specialize in procurement consulting and will test sourcing knowledge directly.

 

Sourcing cases are growing more common across all firms. According to BCG's 2025 supply chain survey, 73% of companies plan to restructure their supplier base within the next two years due to geopolitical risks and reshoring trends. This means consulting firms are staffing more sourcing projects and looking for candidates who can handle these cases.

 

What Are the Most Common Types of Sourcing Cases?

 

Sourcing case study interviews generally fall into five categories. Understanding these types helps you recognize what the interviewer is testing and tailor your framework accordingly.

 

Procurement Cost Reduction

 

This is the most common sourcing case type. The client is spending too much on raw materials, components, or services, and your job is to find ways to reduce procurement costs without sacrificing quality or reliability.

 

A typical prompt might be: "Our client is a consumer goods manufacturer spending $500M per year on raw materials. They believe they are overpaying by 10% to 15%. How would you help them reduce procurement costs?"

 

In my experience coaching candidates, roughly 50% of all sourcing cases fall into this category. If you want to learn case interviews quickly, check out my case interview course for proven strategies you can master in as little as 7 days.

 

Supplier Consolidation and Selection

 

These cases ask you to evaluate whether a client should reduce its number of suppliers to gain better pricing through volume leverage. You will typically need to weigh the cost savings from consolidation against the risks of depending on fewer suppliers.

 

For example: "Your client uses 200 different suppliers for packaging materials. Should they consolidate to 50 suppliers to negotiate better rates?" The answer requires balancing purchasing power gains against supply chain risk.

 

Make-vs-Buy Decisions

 

Make-vs-buy cases ask whether a company should produce a component in-house or outsource it to an external supplier. These cases test your ability to compare total costs across both options, including hidden costs like quality control, shipping, and management overhead.

 

According to Deloitte's 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey, 76% of companies outsource at least one business function. Make-vs-buy decisions are a staple of consulting work and therefore a common interview topic.

 

Sourcing Risk and Disruption Assessment

 

These cases focus on quantifying the risk of relying on specific suppliers or sourcing regions. You might be asked to estimate the financial impact of a supplier disruption or evaluate whether a client should diversify its supplier base to reduce risk.

 

With recent disruptions from geopolitical tensions and natural disasters, risk assessment cases have surged in popularity. A McKinsey report found that supply chain disruptions now cost the average company 45% of one year's profits over the course of a decade.

 

Global Sourcing and Reshoring

 

These cases evaluate whether a client should move production or sourcing from one country to another. You will need to compare labor costs, transportation costs, tariffs, lead times, and quality differences across geographies.

 

Reshoring cases have become increasingly popular since 2020. According to the Reshoring Initiative, the number of U.S. reshoring and foreign direct investment job announcements reached over 350,000 in 2024, a record high.

 

How Do You Solve a Sourcing Case Study Interview?

 

Follow these seven steps to solve any sourcing case study interview. This approach works whether you are in an interviewer-led or candidate-led case format.

 

Step 1: Clarify the Sourcing Objective

 

Start by confirming exactly what the client wants to achieve. Is the goal to reduce procurement costs? Improve supplier quality? Reduce supply chain risk? Speed up lead times? The objective will shape your entire approach.

 

Ask questions like: "Is the primary goal cost reduction, or is the client also concerned about quality and reliability?" and "What percentage of total costs does procurement represent?" In my experience, these clarifying questions often reveal that the problem is narrower than it first appears.

 

Step 2: Map the Current Sourcing Process

 

Before proposing solutions, you need to understand how the client currently sources its inputs. Ask about the number of suppliers, the categories of spend, the geographic distribution of suppliers, and the contract terms in place.

 

A useful technique is to ask for a spend breakdown by category. Most sourcing cases provide data showing that a small number of categories account for the majority of spend. According to a common consulting heuristic, 20% of spend categories typically account for 80% of total procurement costs.

 

Step 3: Build a Sourcing Framework

 

Structure your analysis using a case interview framework tailored to sourcing. We will cover the specific framework in the next section, but at a high level, you want to organize your thinking around four areas: spend analysis, supplier landscape, sourcing levers, and implementation risk.

 

Present this framework to the interviewer just as you would in any case interview. Walk them through each bucket and explain what questions you need answered in each area.

 

Step 4: Analyze Cost Drivers

 

Dig into the data to identify where the biggest cost reduction opportunities exist. Break down procurement costs into their components: raw material prices, transportation costs, tariffs, supplier margins, and internal processing costs.

 

Look for red flags like prices significantly above market benchmarks, suppliers with unusually high margins, or categories where the client has not renegotiated contracts in years. Having coached hundreds of candidates, I have found that the best answers focus on the two or three categories with the largest absolute savings potential rather than trying to optimize everything at once.

 

Step 5: Identify Sourcing Levers

 

This is where you propose specific strategies to reduce costs or improve performance. The seven strategic sourcing levers (covered in detail below) give you a menu of options to consider for each spend category.

 

Match each lever to the spend categories where it will have the greatest impact. For example, volume bundling works best when the client has fragmented spend across many suppliers for the same category. Specification optimization works best when products are over-engineered relative to customer requirements.

 

Step 6: Quantify the Impact

 

Turn your recommendations into numbers. Calculate the expected savings from each lever, estimate implementation costs, and determine the net benefit. Use specific figures whenever possible.

 

For example: "By consolidating from 15 packaging suppliers to 5, the client can increase order volume per supplier by 3x and negotiate a 12% price reduction. On $50M in packaging spend, that saves $6M annually." This kind of specific quantification is what separates top candidates from average ones.

 

Step 7: Present Your Recommendation

 

Wrap up with a clear, structured recommendation. State your answer first, then provide two to three supporting reasons, and finish with next steps. This is the same recommendation structure used in any consulting case.

 

A strong recommendation might sound like: "I recommend the client pursue three sourcing initiatives that will reduce annual procurement costs by $15M. First, consolidate packaging suppliers to save $6M. Second, renegotiate steel contracts at market rates to save $5M. Third, switch to standardized components to save $4M. As next steps, I would validate savings estimates with detailed supplier quotes."

 

What Framework Should You Use for Sourcing Cases?

 

The best sourcing case framework has four pillars. This structure is specifically designed for procurement and sourcing cases, unlike generic frameworks that try to cover all case types. Here are the four areas to investigate:

 

• Spend Analysis: What does the client spend on procurement? Break it down by category, supplier, and geography. Identify the largest categories and any spend that is growing quickly.

 

• Supplier Landscape: Who are the current suppliers? How many are there per category? What are their margins, quality levels, and lead times? Are there alternative suppliers the client is not using?

 

• Sourcing Levers: What specific strategies can reduce costs or improve performance? This is where the seven strategic sourcing levers come in.

 

• Implementation and Risk: How difficult is each initiative to implement? What are the risks of switching suppliers or changing specifications? What is the timeline to realize savings?

 

The seven strategic sourcing levers are the specific tools you can recommend in any sourcing case:

 

Sourcing Lever	What It Means	When to Use It
Volume Bundling	Combine fragmented purchases into larger orders to negotiate volume discounts	Client buys same category from many suppliers in small quantities
Supplier Consolidation	Reduce the number of suppliers per category to increase leverage	Client has 10+ suppliers for a single category with no clear reason
Specification Optimization	Simplify or standardize product specs to use cheaper materials without affecting quality	Products are over-engineered or specs vary widely across SKUs
Supplier Switching	Move volume to lower-cost suppliers or introduce competitive bidding	Current supplier prices are above market benchmarks
Contract Renegotiation	Renegotiate existing contracts based on market data and competitive bids	Contracts are old, auto-renewed, or lack competitive terms
Demand Management	Reduce or eliminate unnecessary consumption of materials or services	Teams are ordering more than they need or buying premium when standard works
Global Sourcing	Source from lower-cost geographies or take advantage of exchange rates	Client sources domestically but comparable quality exists abroad at lower cost

 

You do not need to use all seven levers in every case. Pick the two or three that are most relevant based on your analysis of the client's spend and supplier landscape.

 

Sourcing Case Study Interview Examples

 

Working through real examples is the best way to prepare for sourcing cases. Below are two fully worked scenarios that cover the most common sourcing case types.

 

Example 1: Procurement Cost Reduction

 

Case prompt: Your client is a mid-size electronics manufacturer with $200M in annual procurement spend across three main categories: semiconductors ($100M), plastic components ($60M), and packaging ($40M). The CEO believes they are overpaying by at least 10%. How would you help them reduce procurement costs?

 

Step 1: Clarify the objective. The goal is to reduce procurement costs. Ask whether there are constraints on quality, delivery timelines, or existing supplier relationships. Assume the CEO wants actionable savings within 12 months.

 

Step 2: Map the current sourcing. The client uses 8 semiconductor suppliers, 12 plastic component suppliers, and 15 packaging suppliers. Contracts for semiconductors were last renegotiated three years ago. Plastic and packaging contracts are renewed annually.

 

Step 3: Analyze each category.

 

Start with semiconductors since it is the largest spend category at $100M. Market prices for comparable chips have dropped 15% over the past three years due to increased global capacity, but the client's contracts have not been updated. This represents a $15M gap.

 

For plastic components at $60M, the client uses 12 different suppliers with overlapping product lines. By consolidating to 5 suppliers and bundling volume, the client could negotiate an estimated 8% discount. That is $4.8M in savings.

 

For packaging at $40M, the client uses custom packaging designs across 50 SKUs. By standardizing to 10 packaging formats, they can reduce tooling costs and negotiate volume pricing. Estimated savings: 12%, or $4.8M.

 

Step 4: Quantify total impact.

 

Adding the three categories together: $15M + $4.8M + $4.8M = $24.6M in potential annual savings. That represents 12.3% of total procurement spend, which exceeds the CEO's 10% target.

 

Step 5: Recommendation. Recommend pursuing all three initiatives in parallel. The semiconductor contract renegotiation is the quickest win since it requires no operational changes. The plastic supplier consolidation will take three to six months to implement. The packaging standardization is a six to twelve month project. Total estimated savings: $24.6M annually.

 

Example 2: Make-vs-Buy Decision

 

Case prompt: Your client is a furniture manufacturer that currently produces its own fabric upholstery in-house. A supplier in Vietnam has offered to produce the same upholstery at 40% lower cost. Should the client outsource?

 

Step 1: Understand the current costs. The client's in-house upholstery production costs $10M per year. This includes $4M in raw materials, $3.5M in labor, $1.5M in facility overhead, and $1M in equipment depreciation.

 

Step 2: Calculate outsourcing costs. The Vietnamese supplier quotes $6M per year for the same volume (40% savings on the $10M). However, you need to add hidden costs: $0.5M in additional shipping, $0.3M in quality inspection, $0.2M in management overhead for the offshore relationship, and $0.5M in higher inventory carrying costs due to longer lead times. Total outsourcing cost: $7.5M.

 

Step 3: Calculate net savings. In-house cost ($10M) minus outsourcing cost ($7.5M) = $2.5M in annual savings. However, the client can only eliminate $2M of the $3.5M labor cost (some workers are needed for other production). The $1.5M facility overhead remains since the factory is shared. So actual avoidable cost is $4M + $2M + $1M = $7M, not the full $10M.

 

Revised savings: $7M minus $7.5M = negative $0.5M. Outsourcing would actually cost more when you account for costs that cannot be eliminated.

 

Step 4: Assess qualitative factors. The client's brand emphasizes "American-made" quality. Outsourcing to Vietnam could damage brand perception. According to a Bain consumer survey, 35% of premium furniture buyers say country of origin influences their purchasing decisions.

 

Step 5: Recommendation. Do not outsource. After accounting for unavoidable fixed costs and hidden outsourcing expenses, there are no net savings. The brand risk further strengthens the case against outsourcing. Instead, explore reducing in-house production costs through lean manufacturing techniques and material substitution.

 

What Tips Help You Ace a Sourcing Case Study Interview?

 

Beyond the step-by-step approach and framework above, these tips will help you stand out in sourcing cases:

 

1. Always start with spend data. The first thing you should ask for in any sourcing case is a breakdown of procurement spend by category. This tells you where to focus your analysis. Do not waste time on categories that represent less than 5% of total spend.

 

2. Look for quick wins and long-term savings separately. Interviewers love candidates who can distinguish between initiatives that deliver savings in weeks (contract renegotiation) versus months (supplier switching) versus years (in-house capability building). Prioritize by timeline and impact.

 

3. Always quantify risks, not just savings. Switching suppliers or changing specifications introduces risk. Great candidates estimate the probability and financial impact of disruption, not just the upside savings. A 10% savings is not worth pursuing if it creates a 20% chance of production shutdown.

 

4. Consider total cost of ownership, not just unit price. A cheaper supplier is not always the best choice. Add up all costs including shipping, quality inspection, inventory carrying costs, management overhead, and the cost of defects. This is the single most common mistake candidates make in sourcing cases.

 

5. Use real benchmarks when estimating savings. Typical procurement optimization projects save 8% to 15% on addressable spend, according to McKinsey. Volume consolidation usually saves 5% to 12%. Contract renegotiations yield 3% to 8%. Use these ranges to sanity-check your numbers.

 

6. Practice the math beforehand. Sourcing cases are heavy on arithmetic. You will need to calculate percentage savings, compare total costs across scenarios, and estimate break-even points. Practice doing these calculations quickly and accurately under time pressure. For additional practice, try working through operations case interviews and cost reduction case interviews.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is a sourcing case study interview?

 

A sourcing case study interview is a consulting case focused on procurement and supplier management. You are given a business scenario involving how a company buys raw materials, components, or services, and asked to analyze costs, evaluate suppliers, and recommend strategies to improve sourcing outcomes. These cases are common at operations-focused consulting firms like AlixPartners, Kearney, and the Big 4, as well as at MBB firms.

 

How do you prepare for a sourcing case interview?

 

Prepare by learning the seven strategic sourcing levers (volume bundling, supplier consolidation, spec optimization, supplier switching, contract renegotiation, demand management, and global sourcing). Practice calculating total cost of ownership, percentage savings, and break-even analysis. Work through at least three to five sourcing case examples with full math before your interview.

 

What is the difference between a sourcing case and a supply chain case?

 

A sourcing case focuses specifically on procurement: how a company selects suppliers, negotiates contracts, and pays for inputs. A supply chain case covers the entire flow of goods from raw materials to the end customer, including logistics, warehousing, and distribution. Sourcing cases are a subset of supply chain cases that zoom in on the procurement function.

 

What frameworks work best for sourcing cases?

 

The four-pillar sourcing framework works best: spend analysis, supplier landscape, sourcing levers, and implementation risk. Within sourcing levers, use the seven strategic sourcing levers to identify specific cost reduction strategies. Avoid using generic frameworks like Porter's Five Forces or SWOT, which are too broad for sourcing-specific questions.

 

Do McKinsey, BCG, and Bain ask sourcing cases?

 

Yes. MBB firms include sourcing cases as part of their operations and strategy case interviews. You might receive a standalone sourcing case or a profitability case where the root cause turns out to be excessive procurement costs. McKinsey's operations practice, BCG's supply chain teams, and Bain's performance improvement group all work heavily on sourcing projects for clients.

 

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