It has been decades since top-notch procurement has been recognized as a means of ensuring an uninterrupted supply of high quality goods and services, from responsive and responsible suppliers, at the minimum total cost of ownership. Cost minimization, if you will. As procurement departments approached excellence in their cost minimization activities, the procurement function itself expanded to encompass more things: …
Seems that the top headline on every newspaper and news website this month has been related to “The Fiscal Cliff” in the USA – a December 31, 2012 deadline upon which, absent a budget agreement by the party-divided US Congress – automatic spending cuts and tax increases will go into effect, sending the US economy into yet another recession. Once…
Proper supply chain approaches have been actively pursued by companies looking for lower costs and improved service levels. However, obtaining this ultimate prize is not easy and can never be fully gained by those companies who choose to remain with the power based “winner takes all” supply chain approaches that use an adversarial pursuit of “value for me alone.” Thinking…
Are supplier salespeople circumventing your procurement processes in order to maximize their profits? If so, they are doing so at the expense of your organization. As a procurement professional, it is your job to put a stop to that supplier behavior, called “backdoor selling.” Supplier salespeople are often so skilled at backdoor selling that their customers do not even realize…
I hope that you have enjoyed the article “True Procurement Transformations, Part I.” As I wrote in the article, procurement transformation “means different things to different people” and I proceeded to list things that will change in a “true” procurement transformation. What I didn’t do was contrast what a procurement transformation is versus what it isn’t. So, I will use…
I hope that you have enjoyed the article “Surprise Supplier Audits: Pros, Cons, Ideas.” In the article, I’ve provided some ideas about how to best implement surprise supplier audits. I am using this additional space to share even more ideas on the topic. So here you go: The concept of surprise audits should be presented to your supplier as a…