Sub-function
Category Strategy
Owns category plan work end to end inside Procurement & Source-to-Pay. Runs 3 lines across 18 stations, drains the repeatable share into no shared tower, and holds 3 human gates.
Estate rating
BBB
74 / 100
Agents author the category strategy including the should-cost model. Committing the company to a supply base architecture is ratified by a sourcing council.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
52
Timetable vs actual
9.1d → 10.3d
Cost / unit
$554
was $2K
Run-rate saving
$3.2M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Category Strategy Orchestrator
Owns the category strategy lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to VP Category Management when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Market Structure Agent
Executes the category strategy step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to VP Category Management when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Supply Base Mapping Agent
Executes the category strategy step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to VP Category Management when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Demand Profile Agent
Executes the category strategy step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to VP Category Management when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Should-cost Modeling Agent
Executes the category strategy step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to VP Category Management when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Category Strategy Agent
Authors positions on category strategy. Frames the question, models the options, and writes a recommendation a human can ratify or reject.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
Make-Buy-Partner Agent
Authors positions on category strategy. Frames the question, models the options, and writes a recommendation a human can ratify or reject.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
Category Strategy Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for category strategy. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into customer-facing escalation ownership.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Category Strategy Refresh
Ratifiedv3Should category plan work stay in the shared transaction spine, or come back inside the function where the context lives?
Hold the ceiling at A2 for category strategy. Agents author the category strategy including the should-cost model. Committing the company to a supply base architecture is ratified by a sourcing council. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
85%
The challenge — Category Strategy Challenger Agent
Category Strategy Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 2 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 9 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per category plan stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $30k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $181k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | not selected |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $407k to build controls | Override rate is 5 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $857k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | selected |
Ratified 2 months ago. Measured since: cost per category plan fell 9 percent against a forecast of 22 percent.
Make-Buy-Partner Position
Ratifiedv3What operating shape carries twice the current category plan volume without adding headcount, and what breaks first if we are wrong?
Keep the repeatable category plan volume in the spine and pull the exception tail back into the function. The spine is cheaper per unit; the tail is where the context that prevents rework actually sits.
confidence
70%
The challenge — Category Strategy Challenger Agent
Category Strategy Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 4 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 8 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per category plan stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A comparator publishes a materially lower unit cost on a like-for-like basis
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $5k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $794k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | not selected |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1252k to build controls | Override rate is 12 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $882k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | selected |
Ratified 9 months ago. Measured since: cost per category plan rose 5 percent against a forecast that it would fall 17 percent.
Category Strategy Operating Position
Ratifiedv3Is the current cost per category plan defensible against external comparators once inference spend is counted in full?
Redesign the lane around exception density rather than volume. Volume is already absorbed; the cost that remains is concentrated in a small share of category plan cases that no current agent resolves without a human.
confidence
80%
The challenge — Category Strategy Challenger Agent
Category Strategy Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 5 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 6 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per category plan stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No independent test of the control evidence behind the touchless rate
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $803k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | not selected |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1258k to build controls | Override rate is 6 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $885k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | selected |
Ratified 5 months ago. Measured since: cost per category plan fell 34 percent against a forecast of 28 percent.
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR1-POL-200 | Category Strategy Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the category plan sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 4 agents · EU · UK · US | envelope | Category Strategy Orchestrator | VP Category Management | v4.1 | Active |
| PR1-POL-201 | Category Strategy Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 4 agents · Global · EU | evidence | Category Strategy Orchestrator | VP Category Management | v5.1 | Active |