The importance of aligning purchasing strategy with business strategy is argued using a substantial literature review. However, some purchases will have a greater impact on the strategic priorities of the business, and suppliers cannot be expected to achieve optimal performance in everything they do, especially at day 1. This paper presents the application of the analytic hierarchy process to prioritise the components of an electric traction elevator in the context of their importance to the business strategy of the manufacturer. This is the first step in the formulation of the manufacturer’s purchasing strategy. The relative importance of the competitive elements in the form of quality, cost, availability and time are first established for the manufacturer’s business strategy, along with the relative importance of the sub-criteria used to measure these elements. The components of the elevator are then assessed to see which have the greatest impact on these sub-criterion measures to establish component priorities and groupings to guide those forming the purchasing strategy. The paper includes a justification of the criteria and sub-criterion measures used, based on a literature review.