Procure IQ

Late last year, CAPS Research released a report on Supply Strategy Implementation: Current State and Future Opportunities 2009 that was based on data from 130 supply organizations across 26 industries. In this survey, the respondents rated the overall importance and implementation importance of 23 different strategies. The results are a little scary: the six lowest rated strategies (where the lowest rated strategy is deemed to be only 77% as important as the highest rated strategy) are the strategies that should be given the highest importance. While the following six strategies, that were ranked highest, are arguably …

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by Dinesh Goel
Not too long ago, I shared an observation in a recent post about the Demand-Supply syndrome. I noticed that subdued demand resulting from recessionary pressures and supply exceeding the industry requirements of manpower were impacting th…

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by Dr. David Howie, Director, TPI
Winning bidders in auctions often experience buyer’s remorse, a gnawing sense that they have paid too much for something that they don’t need and perhaps no longer want. Something similar can happen in reverse when…

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Late last year, I noted how “Made in China”, for a growing number of operations, is now “Made in Egypt” as even China is adopting outsourcing. According to a recent Industry Week article, over 950 Chinese companies have set up operations in Egyptian free zones and made an investment of about 300 Million to take advantage of cheap labor, investment incentives, and unrestricted exports. But an even bigger story, as pointed out in a recent paper in Education and the MBA in the outsourcing sector by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary of the Egypt ITIDA, is probably the imminent rise of …

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Many companies negotiate small package programs to cover the documents in small packages, but how much consideration is given to those shipments with weights between 200 and 300 pounds.
Normally a shipper will tender those shipments directly to an LTL carrier along with other shipments. These shipments are known as minimums in the LTL industry and [...]

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Someday you’ll be sorrySomeday when you’re freeMemories will remind youOf what was meant to beBut late at night when you call for helpThe only sound you’ll hearIs the sound of your voice callingCalling out for helpJust throwing it all awayThrowing it all awayAnd there’s nothing that I can sayWith apologies to Phil Collins, that slightly modified verse just keeps playing over and over again in my head. This recent article in Industry Week on optimizing outsourcing relationships for today’s market realities has me shaking my head. Manufacturers signed contracts to outsource more than $10.4 billion worth of IT …

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While the cost to deliver a unit of computing resource continues to fall, there is a “traitor” to the cause of lower costs – Software.  Software, eight years ago, was typically in the 40% range of the total cost to deliver a MIPS.  Now, we see …

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Many organizations measure on a monthly basis on time carrier performance assuring both manufacturer/shipper and end-user/customer on-time delivery of product by the service provider selected.
These measurements are used in carrier selection and negoti…

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Shortly after I encountered that appalling article telling us we should outsource thinking until all we’re left with is white trash auctioning their junk at the bargain barn, I found this article on Global Services on how Playboy [is] to Rely on Outsourcing. According to the article, Playboy has outsourced production of its monthly magazine and struck a deal to outsource its Asia operations to IMG Licensing Worldwide and expects that outsourcing will trim the Chicago company’s staff by 50% this year. Europe is next. Afterwards, the …

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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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