Category: Procurement

What is Supplier Diversity?

Manage Procurement Spend Like It’s Your Own Business!

With all of the societal issues circulating around race, racism and discrimination it’s important to understand how this pertains to Supply Chain and what role Supply Chain plays in this arena.

Specifically in the area of Procurement there has been a history associated with attempts to direct spending toward diversity owned businesses. There have been successes and failures for sure but the underlying intent of providing business opportunities to those who would otherwise not have that opportunity still makes sense.

In this article we’d like to explore the history and state of Supplier Diversity. For some this is second nature yet for too many others this is not understood or not even known.

What exactly is Supplier Diversity?

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Create Collaborative Innovation with Suppliers!

Supply Chain Collaboration – The New Way to Drive Value!

Previous CIO of General Motors (GM), Tony Scott, was once quoted saying,“GM is a highly collaborative organization; we rely on a whole tier of suppliers for everything that we do.” They rely on collaborative innovation.

Our organization’s products, customers, and profit, are ultimately a byproduct of the global supply chain networks that operate on a daily basis to add value through collaboration. The complexity of global supply chains – especially in organizations like GM, often the elephant in the room – require hands-on relationship management of suppliers to ensure that supplier collaboration will lead to added value, and innovation.

It’s nice to see that their previous Chief Information Officer had enough perspective to recognize their suppliers’ importance.

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The Role of Procurement in Supply Chain: Key Strategies for Success!

Featuring Our 12 Best Procurement Articles!

In today’s competitive business landscape, effective supply chain management is crucial for organizations to thrive. At the heart of supply chain management lies the role of procurement, a strategic function responsible for sourcing, acquiring, and managing goods and services essential for business operations. 

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Supply Chain Personified! The Link Between Your Company Silos!

What Exactly Is Supply Chain Management? 10 Different Definitions!

How many parts of your company act as independent Company Silos?  How many functions in your  organization conduct themselves like they are islands?

One of the main problems in a functionally organized company is that those functions over time can become isolated from each other.  The responsibilities, metrics, skills, strategies and mandates for each function can cause people to put their functional focus ahead of the greater company objectives.

But the Supply Chain team is uniquely positioned to bridge all of these silos and islands.  Supply Chain is truly the link that can hold your company together!

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The Reality of Automation in Procurement!

Why Procurement Transformation Can Fail!

The duties of procurement managers are diverse, ranging from creating solicitations to collaborating with vendors. The importance of digital procurement is increasing rapidly. Along with cost savings, procurement managers are focusing on optimizing and automating processes. But there is the reality of automation in Procurement.

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Supplier Collaboration is a Win-Win Strategy!

How to Create Collaborative Innovation with Suppliers!

Suppliers are an intrinsic part of the Supply Chain.  It does not matter what business you are in, what products you make, distribute and sell, or what part of the world you are in.  And it doesn’t matter where in the Supply Chain you are.  You can not accomplish anything without collaboration with your Suppliers.

Yet I have seen, like many of you, Suppliers treated in many different ways.  No matter what the circumstances are poor treatment of Suppliers is never appropriate.  Given that Customers fundamentally need their Suppliers to be successful why do people treat them badly?  And how do we ensure there is a healthy and productive relationship between Suppliers and Customers?

Working together with your Suppliers is always a formula for success!

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Improve Your Competitive Bidding Results!

Featuring Our 12 Best Procurement Articles!

Leading a competitive bidding results process can be painful. It all starts fine with sending your Request for Proposal (RFP) out to your suppliers one by one and then a lot of information starts coming in from various channels and formats.

The process, commonly managed through numerous threads of emails with attachments of documents in Microsoft words and/or excel format, phone conversations, face-to-face meetings, and paper notes, makes all the information a challenge to sort through and organize.

In the end, you are the one who is painfully sorting through all the information and trying to make sense of everything as you strive to get competitive bidding results.

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Top 10 Global Supply Chain Risks

Inventory Turnover Breakthrough … Go Back To The Basics!

Change is inevitable in modern supply chain management, and risk management is essential to success. Supply Chain risks evolve and become more prevalent with time.

Risk management strategies of yesteryear are ineffective in the changing landscape, and no type of transport can avoid risks.

Risks exist in land, air and ocean freight. They’re inevitable and unavoidable. Poor grasp of hazards in your supply chain will increase freight spend and diminish brand value.

Understanding the top 10 global supply chain risks can work to reduce their impact.

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7 Reasons to Automate Accounts Payable!

Best Practices for Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable!

A lot of the problems, issues, and mistakes that happen in accounts payable can be handled through automation. AP is essential for maintaining strong relationships with vendors and a positive cash flow which is why you should automate Accounts Payable.

It’s somewhat easy to overlook the importance of accounts payable until a significant problem arises. 

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What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)? (Video)

Thesis Ideas for Supply Chain Students!

What is Supply Chain Management?

The term was coined over 35 years ago but still to this day there are a large number of different definitions of SCM.

To someone who is starting out their career, or who is new to the field of Supply Chain, it is understandable that there may be confusion as to the definition of SCM.

But the reality is that there are many expert individuals and organizations who define Supply Chain differently. Are they really that different or are there just subtle nuances in what some people consider SCM that others do not?

Watch our video to learn more about how people define Supply Chain Management!

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7 Strategies to Optimize Your Medical Equipment Supply Chain!

How to Increase Transparency in the Medical Device Supply Chain!

In any business, supply plays an important role. It ensures you dispose of your manufactured goods to your ideal customers. It’s the only way to get output from your investments in the production process. Based on this, an efficient supply chain is a must-have, despite the industry. Suppose you’re in the medical equipment business.

How can you optimize your medical equipment supply chain?

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Why Procurement Transformation Can Fail!

What’s the Difference between Procurement and Purchasing? (Infographic)

Over these past 28 years of my career in Procurement (yes I started when I was 12), I’ve had the privilege and pain of seeing, not just procurement, but many different types of Transformation initiatives succeed and, unfortunately, fail. Let’s discuss why procurement transformation can fail.

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High Prices and Low Availability Plague the Electrical Supply Chain!

Supply Chains Are Broken. Denial Will Kill Your Company!

Have you found that the consistent supply and reasonable prices in the Electrical Supply Chain that you were used to before COVID-19 hit have not returned as soon as you hoped, or as soon as some experts predicted?

Global events have created further obstacles in the electrical supply chain, but there are ways to work around them.

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What’s the Difference between Procurement and Purchasing? (Infographic)

Featuring Our 12 Best Procurement Articles!

It’s a good question. We often see these terms used interchangeably, but there are some concrete differences between Procurement and Purchasing such that we think they are two different practices, each with their own set of concerns and skills.

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The Digital Supply Chain Road is Full of Potholes, Construction and Accidents!

The Digital Supply Chain road, or Supply Chain 4.0, is the path to the future.

Enabled by highly publicized technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data, the Internet of Things, Autonomous Vehicles, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Augmented Reality, 3D Printing and more the Digital Supply Chain holds great promise and exciting opportunities.

But even with established technologies the road to implementation can be challenging to say the very least.

As you are developing your Digital Supply Chain strategies it is important to understand, consider, and account for the inevitable problems and obstacles that will test your resolve and your leadership.

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