One of the overriding themes at this year’s 6th Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management was Green … and how you need to be ready for the Green Goblin before he takes a huge bite out of your bank account. Carbon caps and strict regulations are starting to take effect around the globe, […]
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Demand Planning is probably at the forefront of your thoughts these days. You don’t want too much inventory, because you can’t afford to tie up working capital, but you don’t want too little inventory either, because, with sales down, you can’t afford to lose even a single sale. You need to operate lean, […]
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My wife recently got back from a jaunt to just south of the border in Mexico last week. It’s bad news she said. Crime is through the roof. People are desperate — shootings, decapitations (right by the border crossing), kidnappings, and random violen…
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Even though I suspect that many Spend Matters readers use social networking tools on a regular basis, I highly doubt that the typical procurement professional has integrated them successfully as part of an everyday job tool. I know that personally, I…
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My long-time graphic / design consultant and friend, Nate Burgos recently penned a piece over on his blog Design Feaster about the process of designing the user interface for Metal Miner’s new metals global pricing index, Metal Miner InDX(SM). Nate n…
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World Trade Magazine recently ran an article on customized solutions offered by logistics providers and 3PLs where it asked thirteen different experts how they would meet the logistics needs described in a ‘hypothetical case study’ for a leading developer or electronics. I think that this is one of the most interesting articles that […]
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Even though our jobs are to reduce and improve it, we should all be thankful that “spend” exists in the first place. For without it, not only would we be out of jobs, but companies would only be as good as what they could produce internally. The fact…
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One of the presentations at the 6th Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management was on Performance Management in Buyer-Supplier Collaboration Programs. It focussed on the implementation of a common scorecard between a buyer and supplier and described the impact of the implementation. A common scorecard, which extends the traditional balanced […]
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Earlier today, I grossed out my wife. She told me that she was headed to the store to buy new baking ingredients (she is making me a cake for my birthday during the long weekend). Even though we have everything at home, she said that she saw some lit…
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Smart Money recently ran a great comparison of the costs of an organic/non-organic Thanksgiving. Too bad they also did not give us the Fair Trade options as well. Still, from a sourcing perspective, the findings are fascinating indeed, especially con…
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