Just weeks after the Big Three shocked the industry by announcing plans to move some assembly back inhouse, a labor strike at a major auto supplier is making the automakers appear clairvoyant. Adding to pricing pressures, volume cuts, and rising material costs, the United Autoworkers (UAW) strike at American Axle is shuttering production across the […]
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The love affair between LCCS (Low-Cost-Country-Sourcing) and China has taken a few hits in recent years: bad press on humanitarian issues, unfavorable VAT rebate reductions, a weakened US$, and increasing government interference. It’s made more than one company turn a speculative eye towards central and eastern Europe (CEE).
And why not? There are a number of […]
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Mehdi Hassan, blogging for South Asia Biz, recently highlighted a Forrester report on the growing dissatisfaction with IT outsourcing in India. As Hassan points out, firms are struggling with the falling dollar, unrealistic expectations, scalability, possible tax code changes and believe it or not, scarcity of top IT talent.
I couldn’t agree more with the assertion […]
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A recent article in World Trade Magazine, an Executive Overview on Near-Sourcing, has the doctor wondering if this is finally the year where people realize that going crazy on low-cost country sourcing is not always the smart way to go.If the low-cost country is half-way around the world, as opposed to just a country or […]
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What Will 2008 Bring in the Metals Markets?
Earlier today, Lisa Reisman and Stuart Burns penned a thoughtful and lengthy post over on Metal Miner offering up their predictions for the metals markets in 2008. Among the metals categories they take the…
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Fellow Enterprise Irregular Thomas Otter has done a commendable job taking to task my Africa sourcing analysis from late November. He kicks off his rebuttal by noting “that Africa will not take over China and India anytime soon in all areas of sourci…
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From Lou Dobbs to Gartner, a panic surrounds offshoring and outsourcing. Yes, I am all for creating new jobs. As a worker and manager, I want the comfort of knowing my job is in demand and my team’s jobs are secure. However, as a consumer I am not willing to pay more for American-made products. […]
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I recently stumbled upon Strategic Sourcing: Measuring and Managing Performance again, a report prepared by RAND for Project Air Force back in 2000. Barely over a page into the summary, it notes that in managing their relationship, a customer and a provider jointly choose metrics that they believe will support the corporate goals of […]
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Buried in the mound of data presented by Mr. Jim Mikell in his presentation at the 5th International Symposium on Supply Chain Management was some convincing evidence that, when done right, procurement outsourcing really does work. Depending on the situation, a company without a world class sourcing organization can outsource to a procurement outsourcer with […]
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A few colleagues of mine were at SIG earlier this month, and they all had (some) good things to say about it. I, of course, wasn’t there as SIG events are typically members only and I’m not a member - as it’s primarily for companies and not bloggers and independent consultants. But I’m always happy […]
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