Procure IQ

Today’s post is from David Henshall, Founder of Purchasing Practice. Dave can be reached at dhenshall <at> purchasingpractice <dot> com. In this four part series, we examine eight dimensional capabilities that will help you overcome the myths surrounding global sourcing. In today’s post, we will focus on the the dimension of corporate social responsibility. (Yesterday’s post addressed cost and quality.) Dimension #3: CSR CSR is important in global sourcing in that it helps drive and support: Business Principles & Values Business Benefits realised …

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Today’s post is from David Henshall, Founder of Purchasing Practice. Dave can be reached at dhenshall <at> purchasingpractice <dot> com. In this four part series, we examine eight dimensional capabilities that will help you overcome the myths surrounding global sourcing. In today’s post, we will focus on the two dimensions of cost and quality. The myths surrounding global sourcing are many, widespread and often misleading. They usually revolve around business conducted in developing countries, the so called low cost country sourcing (LCCS) countries. LCCS is fertile ground for the politicians, humanitarians and environmentalist alike, covering …

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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.) China’s exports in February were up 45% from last February. (LA Times) My opinion: the rapid decline and unsustainable increase in Chinese exports were from the bullwhip effect of a long supply chain. A small change in final demand can cause huge swings in upstream supply. This mainly applies to those using ships to …

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As per this recent news release from Materials Management & Distribution, Halifax has broken ground on its $35 million berth project that will see the port’s berth become the deepest on the eastern seaboard of North America. Once complete, the South End Container Terminal will be able to simultaneously service two full-sized post-Panamax vessels (and Panamax II type vessels can carry up to 12,000 TEUs). 24,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units is an awful lot of freight. (It should be enough to make Halifax a top 10 North American port at the very least!)And this is just the beginning. …

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A recent article in Industry Week on The Role of Content & Creativity in Global Trade Management by Adrian Gonzalez of ARC Advisory Group noted that compliance is only one component of a best-in-class global trade management solution: content and connectivity are also critical. According to Adrian, companies must have accurate and complete trade content for every country they operate in and trade with in order to successfully comply with trade regulations and prevent customs clearance delays because a GTM solution without a comprehensive and continuously updated trade content database is only marginally useful. According to Adrian, trade …

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The purpose of Basel II, the second of the Basel Accords (which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision), was to create an international standard that banking regulators can use when creating regulations about how much capital needs to be reserved to guard against financial and operational risks. In essence, the goal was to reduce risk and insure trade even in the event that a series of major banks collapsed.But did it, in fact, accomplish the exact opposite? In two recent articles in the financial times which addressed the …

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Stanford University Professors Warren Hausman and Hau Lee recently decided that an end-to-end model was required for global trade management and decided to research the requirements. Analyzing imported goods from Asia to the US in the apparel sector, Hausman and Lee identified 106 discrete steps in the global trade management process. One Hundred and Six. Wow!They also found ample opportunities for ROI for investment and improvement of global trade processes. Specifically, they estimated that importers actively using Asian sourcing had an opportunity through automation to reduce their supply chain costs by a range of 0.6-2.2% of annual …

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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.) The October 1 New York Times has an interesting article on a tariff increase on solar panels. While the panels came from China, that’s not the interesting part of the story. The interesting part is that CBP (The US Customs and Border Protection department — successor to the US Customs Service) announced the tariff increase eight months ago and nearly the entire solar panel industry missed it.To summarize, one US company asked CBP for …

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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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If you haven’t, you might find that you’re shut out of European markets in 2010. You see, when January, only two short months away, comes around, another 15 substances must be reported under REACH. Furthermore, the EU is planning to add substances to the list every six months, possibly until the entire SIN List of 356 chemicals that have been identified as Substances of Very High Concern is on the table. If you can’t complete the necessary reporting, you can’t import into, manufacture in, or export from the EU. Right now, you just have 15 restricted substances …

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