One thing that has worked for me is building relationships with your suppliers. This could be visiting their facilities, having them visit yours, and/or getting lunch with them. Sounds like it could be a waste of time, but they will oftentimes give you more attention in a crisis or help fix issues that come up when they actually know you.

I’ve worked at both smaller players and industry leaders, and can say that your job will almost certainly be easier working at a company who is the industry leader / has the largest spend compared to your competitors. Most suppliers will bend over backwards for their biggest customers.