Procure IQ

I was thrilled to see this article in Logistics Management about Dell’s inventory optimization pilot which saved them 55% in its initial application. In a mere 90 days, a pilot, rolled out to two suppliers, that was primarily focused on managing suppliers and replenishment processes via a consistent inventory policy reduced inventory, and associated costs, by 55% (from $6M to $2.7M). Imagine the savings Dell is going to realize when it rolls the new system out to the majority of its supplier base (that constitutes the top 80% of its spend), cleans, and analyzes its historical data. …

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The Sourcing Innovation Resource Site, always immediately accessible from the link under the “Free Resources” section of the sidebar, continues to add new content on a weekly, and often daily, basis — and it will continue to do so. The following is a not-so-short selection of over 20 webinars THIS WEEK that might interest you: Date & Time Webcast 2009-Dec-1 14:00 GMT-05:00/CDT/EST …

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In today’s world of vendor selection for company Spend Analysis needs, the process “du jour” is to have the vendor conduct a free “Proof of Concept” (POC), Pilot, or classification test.   Increasingly, this selection process is based on ol…

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The next few weeks will be full of interpretation of holiday retail  numbers. Are they up, down or flat? How about online sales? And the big, BIG question … what do the numbers show us about the state of the economy, consumer confidence and the prospects for a 2010 recovery?

The early returns are positive (if only slightly by some surveys) for Black Friday. And online sales over the weekend were up, leading to hopes that Cyber Monday will provide another bump today. But with per person spending averaging down, consumers may be bargain hunting more than usual. Case in point are the Zhu Zhu Pets, this season’s must-have toy, that cost under $10 (just for the record, you could buy an actual hamster on Craigslist for $5).

Georgetown University Professor Prashant Malaviya warns that any uptick in consumers spending may actually be the result of “frugal fatigue”, meaning people are simply tired of cutting back and have been lured by out of their spending slumber by deals and clever marketing.

Obviously with the massive role that consumer spending plays in the economy, a rebound in their confidence is key to the economic recovery. However if the operative terms for the holiday season are “frugal fatigue” and bargain hunting, it’s another sign that consumer confidence and the economy are not out of the woods yet.

Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.

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This series discusses the recent report from CAPS Research on the role of optimization in strategic sourcing. The primary goal is to highlight, clarify, and, in some cases, correct parts of the report that are important, confusing, or incorrect to insure that you have the best introduction to strategic sourcing decision optimization that one can have. The first chapter in the report provides a brief history of optimization, which dates back to 1947 when G. Dantzig developed the simplex algorithm, defines sourcing optimization, describes some inherent complexity of sourcing models that makes them well suited for decision optimization, and …

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As hinted at in Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious this summer, in this series that I will be starting next week, I will be digging into the recent report on the role of optimization in strategic sourcing from CAPS Research. This report, which is the most extensive effort I’ve seen by anyone [other than myself and my efforts here on this blog, in the wiki-paper, in the e-Sourcing Handbook, and the NLP sponsored podcast (part I, part II, and transcript)] to define the role of strategic sourcing decision optimization, provides a great introduction to someone just getting started with this very valuable, but still …

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In order to whet your whistle for Rinehart’s upcoming guest posts on relationship management and negotiation management, here are Rinehart and Andraski’s Top 10 Negotiating Mistakes, which they have compiled during their research (and which they have described in detail in their books available through the CSCMP store). 10. Negotiators who do not want to negotiate – SHOULD NOT. 09. Negotiators who do not have time to negotiate – SHOULD NOT. 08. Negotiators who do NOT prepare for a negotiation do not have enough information to create a successful outcome. …

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Hammy dreams … while listening to Super Girl by Suzie MacNeil on the radioI’m the life of the party, so contagious. All the critters wanna catch me, but I’m flying high. (one) One, two, come and see what I can do. (two) Two, three, everybody’s after me. (three) Three, four, let me tell you what’s in store. Let’s go everybody off the floor. I’m SuperSquirrel, I’m everywhere, Those flying birds they stop and stare. I’m fire brown, I’m very …

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Maybe this is how they transport your oversized merchandise … Maybe this is how they secure your funds … Maybe this is their idea of plant safety … Maybe this is how they’ll service your fleet … Maybe this is their definition of “repackaged” merchandise … Maybe this …

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Editor’s Note: Today’s post is from Dick Locke, Sourcing Innovation’s resident expert on International Sourcing and Procurement. (His previous guest posts are still archived.) It appears that Mexican drug cartels are taking advantage of the US’ C-TPAT program to occasionally put marijuana into trucks that have been granted expedited clearance into the US. How serious is this?Here are a couple of articles:Trucker Program Attracts Drug SmugglersMexican Drug Smugglers Taking Advantage of New Program That Speeds Truckers Across the BorderIf you dig into the articles you will see that there are about 5 million north-bound truckloads crossing the Mexican border annually. …

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