I recently asked my fellow Strategic Sourcing & Procurement group members on LinkedIn for topics they’d like to cover on our monthly conference calls this summer. Lots of great ideas, but the one that caught my eye as an opportunity to have an immediate impact was the suggestion by a Supply Chain Analyst at a [...]
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Category Manager Bob Zieger discusses the shift in supplier risk focus away from financial and towards operational.
This segment is a clip from the LinkedIn Strategic Sourcing & Procurement group member conference call on commodities. You can stream the full replay here (embedded player top center). Request to join the group here.
Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor [...]
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The explosion of a Transocean-operated oil rig last week has caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The full extent of damages are obviously still unknown, but appear likely to surpass the Exxon Valdez as the worst oil spill in US history. The oil well remains unplugged and is leaking 42,000 gallons [...]
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As many of you know, the Category Managers who contribute to Supply Excellence also create a quarterly report called SupplyWatch. The Q2 issue is posted and includes detailed category breakdowns for…
Metals
Plastics, Rubber & Raw Materials
Transportation
Electronics, Electrical & IT Hardware
Paper & Packaging
Services & Capital Goods, Construction & Engineering
This quarter’s feature article is on Working Capital [...]
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I recently posted about the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement LinkedIn group member call on commodities that’ll be conducted this Friday, but wanted to provide a couple updates for those who’d like to listen or participate. Below are the details, format and experts we have lined up.
First, the 1-hour call is this Friday, April 30th at [...]
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Spring has sprung. The markets, manufacturing and perhaps even … employment may be emerging from hibernation. And while we’re all happy to see the economy awakening from a brutal recession (please don’t hit the snooze button), it will mean some changes as we shift from buyer’s market conditions. Indeed, we’re already seeing commodity prices rising, [...]
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While there are early signs that economic growth is returning to many parts of the world, it’s important to not put Supply Risk Management initiatives on the shelf.
A recent World Economic Forum report, “Global Risk Report 2010″ highlights the very real risks that all organizations face every day.
While the risks are many and range from [...]
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After sharing his insights into supply risk management, Dr. Uwe Schulte gave a great example of when the best course of action to protect his company from a supply risk was … to do nothing. Of course, he stressed that choosing to do nothing and doing nothing by default are two different things.
Has anyone else ever reached the same conclusion about a particular risk and consciously chosen to do nothing? Care to share your story and results (anonymously if you must) in the Comments?
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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With the drop in global consumer demand, well publicized glut of capacity in ocean freight and cost cutting objectives in many companies, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions about ocean freight contracts and securing lower long-term fixed rates lately. The market is at an low time low and now is the time to act, [...]
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In our last post, we laid the foundations for cost reduction in tough times by pointing out that, regardless of whether you are sourcing products or services, you start with:
A Spend Analysis
A Should-Cost Model
e-Sourcing
In this post, we’re going to lay out some general techniques for saving money on your direct sourcing categories that are widely [...]
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