Henry Ford must be smiling. After decades of outsourcing manufacturing, engineering, and other responsibilities to suppliers stateside and in low-cost regions, The Big Three automakers are beginning to bring sub-assembly back in-house.
Beginning this spring, Ford Motor Company — the birthplace of Henry Ford’s vertical integration manufacturing model — will be the first to take back [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Don Dougherty, a Partner with SupplyStaff and Denali Consulting.In today’s global economy, hiring and retaining top talent is a driving concern of corporate and human capital management professionals. Escalating retirement rates are looming, fewer resources are entering the job market than in previous generations, and required skills sets are [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Charles Dominick of Next Level Purchasing with his post on Procurement Transformation.Procurement transformation. It’s a buzzphrase. It’s a goal. And it’s a reality for some organizations.But what does it take? What are the necessary ingredients to take a purchasing and supply management department from a state [...]
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Over the past year, Supply Excellence has been tracking a growing trend for companies to rethink their sourcing strategies. For example, General Motors has made re-sourcing a cornerstone of its (ongoing) turnaround plan. And just last week a major food and beverage company told me it was rethinking supply lines for core ingredients.
Mattel’s Chairman and [...]
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Toys “R” Us and Wal-Mart announced last week that they’ll be tightening their safety requirements for toy suppliers. Both retailers will institute mandatory third party testing to safeguard against lead paint and Babies “R” Us will cut their phthalate threshold by 85%. Great moves from PR and supply chain risk perspectives. But is it enough [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Jon Hansen of Procurement Insights.In 2006 CPO Agenda’s London-based editor chaired a panel discussion asking the question “are there any limits to procurement’s role?” The panel which included senior procurement personnel from organizations such as Nestle, Danone, British Airways and Merrill Lynch provided some interesting insights into the prevailing [...]
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Many of you loyal SupplyExcellence readers know that I joined Ariba when they purchased my former employer, Procuri, in December. One benefit of the move is that I now have regular exposure to Ariba’s category and commodity experts who track rapidly changing supply market dynamics.
As a former analyst and self-proclaimed news junkie, I can’t [...]
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I was fortunate enough to spend last week crisscrossing Europe, meeting with procurement executives about their supply management challenges and initiatives for the coming year. It quickly became clear from my discussions that, while Supply Excellence has focused (possibly myopically) on the impact of the declining U.S. dollar and economy have had on American companies, [...]
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Today I’d like to welcome Dick Locke from Global Procurement Group.Thank you to the doctor for the opportunity to contribute. Here are my thoughts from the perspective of someone involved in the training aspects of globalizing supply management.I’m optimistic overall. The caliber of people attending my seminars has improved, and the caliber of commentary [...]
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A couple of months ago, Knowledge @ Wharton China ran an article on how to retain talent in a fast-growing market like China that the doctor couldn’t resist skimming. It notes that protecting your workforce from competitors eager to recruit experienced staff is a challenge in fast-growing markets as well as stable markets (which [...]
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