Somehow Michigan fascinates me for its auto industry and what it has given to the study of management,innovation and the wrong way to manage buyer seller relationships. When I heard on the radio about the leading rate of job losses and foreclosures in Michigan, I felt bad for the folks in Michigan. But this mayContinue reading “Michigan Auto Industry is changing”
Category Archives: Global Sourcing
You don’t repeat reverse auctions!
Reverse auctions are controversial. Suppliers bid their lowest rates on-line and prices keep going down and the buyer’s organization is happy. Inefficiencies in the supply chain reduce, transparency increases and suppliers are on their toes. Sounds not very collaborative and that’s what I had though so far till I went yesterday to the CAPM SeminarContinue reading “You don’t repeat reverse auctions!”
Supply Chain a Market Strategy differentiator
I was rather pleased to read the Aberdeen report , see the CNN summary here. 56% of the over 800 firms surveyed felt that supply chain management was a market strategy differentiator and could make all the difference in customer satisfaction and service apart from delivering sustainability in a firm’s overall operations. This seems fairlyContinue reading “Supply Chain a Market Strategy differentiator”
Corporate Social Responsibility
Last week my article in the Inside Supply Management of December 2007 appeared in print. This is a short piece on Corporate Social Responsibility and what the supply manager can do to contribute to Corporate Social Responsibility. I talk about three areas first the Global Supply Chain and quality problems (eg. toy recalls), supplier diversityContinue reading “Corporate Social Responsibility”
e-Sourcing Workshop by Jim Kelly
http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf The e-Sourcing Workshop by Jim Kelly (of JVKG ) turned out to be brilliant (check out the photos above).Here was someone who had worked for many years in procurement and was able to bring out the practicalities of technology adoption in the automation of requisition to procure and pay in a variety of industries.Continue reading “e-Sourcing Workshop by Jim Kelly”
How Relationship Marketing is Changing Procurement Management
Sometimes its just a quick remark that clarifies difficult issues and that happened with me yesterday when a very competent procurement professional mentioned that their company did not do much procurement activities i.e. bidding,negotiation because they preferred to stay with the same supplier. So, there was not much growth in procurement as a career… ThisContinue reading “How Relationship Marketing is Changing Procurement Management”
Mature Global design Strategies improve profits
I was rather happy to read the Aberdeen report’s summary which highlights that global product design and development leads to reduction in product development time and time to market while allowing the protection of intellectual property through Digital Rights Management. This blog and my research has been investigating these issues for some time and IContinue reading “Mature Global design Strategies improve profits”
From supply chain to “global value chain” a report from NECON 2007
I returned from NECON 2007 and was struck by a major change in the supply profession from 2006. In three words "global value chain," in contrast to the narrower "savings" theme of the previous year. While in 2006 there was some talk about managing the global supply organization and global suppliers – this time IContinue reading “From supply chain to “global value chain” a report from NECON 2007″
Outsourcing call centers – an ethics question?
I recently bought a Dell computer and during the buy process I needed to call and it was a US salesperson. In fact, the Dell website was very careful in guiding US customers in the early part of the buy process to US persons, or at least US numbers. You guessed it ! The personContinue reading “Outsourcing call centers – an ethics question?”
Crib Recall – New Product Development meets Supplier Involvement
Walk into any furniture store in the US and almost all products are made in China. You order anything and the boxes arrive with instructions and you do as best as you can. I , for example, have a desk with a hutch that I could not install very well and just did not wantContinue reading “Crib Recall – New Product Development meets Supplier Involvement”