Costing
A common refrain I hear from procurement execs is ”What are the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure supply management success?” In a recent report, Aberdeen Group proffered a list of the Top 10 Procurement KPIs. But Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) tend to have a more direct answer: it’s all about cost savings. And cost avoidance doesn’t [...]
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Last week, I shared the latest projections from Thinking Cap Solutions which uncovered opportunities to negotiate double-digit discounts on your zinc, copper, and aluminum contracts. And that’s just the tip of the “ICEberg.”
Thinking Cap’s latest Industry Cost Escalation report — the ICE-Alert — identifies 183 industries “where average prices can decline without sending margins any [...]
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Believe it or not, there may be a silver lining to the cloud that’s been hanging over metals buyers. According to Thinking Cap Solutions, Inc.’s latest analysis of price, cost, and margin trends, now is the time to negotiate price discounts for lead, zinc, aluminum, and copper, among other metals.
In its latest ICE-Alert (www.ice-alert.com) — [...]
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In recent posts on the requirements for Supply Management 2.0 and value-based sourcing, I banged the drum loudly about how it is imperative for supply managers to move beyond their cost focus and find new ways to contribute value to the business. A recent Purchasing magazine feature on the key role supply management plays in product development [...]
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A Supply Excellence reader comment to yesterday’s post reaffirmed the sense I’ve been getting from recent conversations with supply management executives: Everyone talks about best total value supply. (You can’t puruse a software vendor’s web site — including my employer — without being accosted by value terminology.) But few truly understand what best-value supply is. [...]
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Congratulations. And thank you for responding to my request to share your favorite approaches for driving supply and contract management improvements.
Supply Excellence reader input — coupled with personal meetings with supply management teams around the globe — serve as the foundation of a new electronic book:
The 100 Greatest Supply Management Tips of All Time!
Practical [...]
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I’m excited to welcome an old cohort, Elizabeth Baatz to Supply Excellence. A true economist, Elizabeth was a regular contributor of pricing and supply indices and intelligence to Purchasing Magazine. Today, she and her husband, economic-whiz-kid Victor Malair, have created a proprietary forecasting model that uses multiple indicators to predict price and supply trends for [...]
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Earlier this week, I logged my picks for what supply management executives can expect this year. Number one on the list: “You will pay higher prices.” The latest Conference Board Chief Executives’ Confidence Measure lends credence and clarity to my claims.
The quarterly survey of 100 CEO’s put the confidence index for North American business executives [...]
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Yesterday’s post provided recommendations on how to assess supply markets and where to find the best sources for information on supply market trends, pricing, and cost drivers. I shared that A.T. Kearney Procurement Solutions was among my favorite sources for supply market intelligence.
Today, I’m happy to report that some of this company’s experts have agreed [...]
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Thanks to rising energy costs and raw-material hogs like China, India, and Boeing, supply markets these days have more faces than Sybil.
Supply managers received good news this week as oil and gas prices continued to decline, with oil slipping below $68 per barrel for the first time since June. Industry experts also downgraded earlier concerns that a [...]
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