Last week, Pierre Mitchell of The Hackett Group asked you if you knew the difference between procurement value and procurement performance (part I and part II) over on Spend Matters and invited you to participate in a study that would help you identify where you were on your procurement journey by way of 18 value streams that range from “naive apprentice”, where you’re measuring performance at an elementary level, to “expert sorcerer”, where you’re extracting procurement value at a very advanced level. (Pierre also posted a link to a corresponding finance study that will help Hackett compile a …
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March 9th, 2010 | Posted in Best Practices, Procurement Innovation
B2B Connex provides a web-based sourcing and procurement document management solution that is a great fit for all types of small and mid-size manufacturing organizations that need simple e-Sourcing and e-Procurement functionality at a low price tag. It’s basic portal solution, that plugs in to your existing ERP & MRP solution, can be acquired for as little as $30,000 (plus 20% annual maintenance) for a small operation. Mid-size operations are generally priced by the number of locations and users, but even their larger customers don’t pay much more than 100K. (Pure SaaS configurations and pricing are also available, …
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December 1st, 2009 | Posted in Lean, Manufacturing, Procurement Innovation, Technology, inventory
I enjoyed this recent article over on Supply Management . com on how when you know the score, like Masco, and use collaborative two-way scorecards (like Canada Post does), you can save a lot of money. Masco saved over $5M with its pilot project with just one supplier, exceeding their initial savings goal by over 40%. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When they roll the program out to their other strategic and high-volume suppliers, I’m sure they’ll save 10 to 100 times that.Although it’s hard to measure, and even harder to define, true collaboration …
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November 19th, 2009 | Posted in Procurement Innovation, Supplier Management
As my regular readers know, after the recession started, I tried my best to convince anyone who would listen not to be a dumb company until I was blue in the face. As I predicted, I wasn’t very successful (as I lost track of the number of companies who put new solution acquisition on indefinite hold and of the number of smaller solution providers that put new development on indefinite hold), but I was still glad to see this recent article in Industry Week on how leading companies will thrive after the recession which said that some companies will …
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November 6th, 2009 | Posted in Procurement Innovation, Sourcing Innovation, rants
Today’s guest post is from Robert A. Rudzki, a former Fortune 500 senior executive of supply management who now advises other companies as President of Greybeard Advisors LLC, a strategic management advisory firm. Bob has authored several business books including Beat the Odds: Avoid Corporate Death and Build a Resilient Enterprise and Straight to the Bottom Line. Bob also writes the Transformation Leadership blog for the Supply Chain Management Review. (e-mail Bob at rudzki <at> greybeardadvisors <dot> com.)How fast can a company transform itself to world-class supply management?One of the most interesting conversations I participated in recently centered around …
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November 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Guest Author, Procurement Innovation, e-Leaders Speak
Almost a year ago, Supply & Demand Chain Executive published PurchasingNet’s top 10 survival tips in a down economy. Even though the consensus is that the economy is starting to recover, the recovery is likely going to be a slow recovery and, if you’re not prepared, a painful one. That’s why it’s important to keep operating lean and mean, and nine of the tips put forward by PurchasingNet are still very relevant. In this post I will explain why they are still relevant, and also explain why one of the tips, while well-intentioned and seemingly a good …
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November 1st, 2009 | Posted in Best Practices, Procurement Innovation
Share This on Linked In Now that Procurement has received board attention as the greatest potential for cost savings in the organization, CPOs need to start planning on how they are going to keep that attention once the recession ends and the spending monkeys try to steal the spotlight again. Thinking [...]
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August 28th, 2009 | Posted in Best Practices, Procurement Innovation
Share This on Linked In A recent article in the Supply Chain Management Review did a good job exposing some of the myths, and realities, of service procurement. Myth: You can manage costs through RFPs. Reality: Sourcing is only the beginning. Over half of all negotiated savings can be leaked during Procurement. [...]
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July 13th, 2009 | Posted in Procurement Innovation, Services
Share This on Linked In A recent article in the Financial Times noted that big companies in the US and Europe have up to 1 Trillion in cash tied up in working capital, a number that represents roughly 6% of their revenue. Freeing up 83% of that would go a [...]
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June 24th, 2009 | Posted in Finance, Procurement Innovation
Share This on Linked In An article this past winter from Industry Week that astutely pointed out that industrial companies are not innovating enough also pointed out that many companies believe the following innovation myths that are, of course, not true. Myth 1: Innovation [...]
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June 19th, 2009 | Posted in Procurement Innovation, Sourcing Innovation
