Supply Management 2.0 Forum
Toys “R” Us and Wal-Mart announced last week that they’ll be tightening their safety requirements for toy suppliers. Both retailers will institute mandatory third party testing to safeguard against lead paint and Babies “R” Us will cut their phthalate threshold by 85%. Great moves from PR and supply chain risk perspectives. But is it enough [...]
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News last week that Home Depot fired four purchasing managers for unethical purchasing tactics will certainly cause other companies to scrutinize their sourcing and supplier management methods. Discussions with supply management executives clearly indicate that automation can enforce standards, audit actions and decisions, and ensure integrity across all aspects of strategic sourcing, contract management, and [...]
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It’s amazing what you can find on the Web. While doing some routine investigation on Empower 2007 speakers, I uncovered a goldmine of supply management strategy papers and presentations published by these presenters.
Consider the Alliance Bernstein CPO Joanna Martinez’s paper on “Immersion Negotiation” techniques that empower buyers to derive best-value awards by being better prepared and [...]
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If the news yesterday that oil prices topped $69 a barrel seemed like the same old story, you’re right. And it market factors suggest that fuel prices will remain high for years to come.
Oil supplies to the West will continue to be strained by:
an unstable workforce, such as the current strike by Nigerian oil unions
artificial supply [...]
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“It all starts with spend.”
That’s how Hess Corporation Supply Chain Leader Carl Tatum summed up his company’s current supply management transformation initiative at the Supply Management 2.0 Forum in Houston last week.
Unfortunately, like most companies, Hess has relied on a mish-mash of automated tools and manual processes to aggregate and analyze its spending. This [...]
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At the final stop on the Supply Management 2.0 Forum in Houston last week, Hess Corporation Supply Chain Specialist Carl Tatum revived the lively debate over the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for supply management success.
“We need something more than year-over-year cost reductions to prove our ROI,” Tatum told the audience of Houston area supply [...]
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The Supply Management 2.0 Forum train pulls into Houston this week, and, in true Texas style, the event promises to be big. Big names. Big ideas. Big networking opportunities.
Hess Corporation Supply Chain Leader Carl Tatum tops the agenda, sharing his company’s new strategies for risk management, spend intelligence, and becoming the “customer of choice” among [...]
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Ask anyone who’s been involved in any business improvement initiative what their biggest challenge was and most will say changing the culture and mindset of their people. Supply management transformation is doubly challenging because it typically requires driving change within the supply team as well as across other business functions, most of which view procurement as [...]
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The Supply Management Forum in San Jose last week was a venerable Who’s Who in high technology, with supply management executives from the world’s leading software, hardware, and media companies swapping stories and tips on global supply strategies. And that was just the audience.
Our featured panelists included Roll International Corporation Director of Strategic Sourcing Alvin [...]
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Last week’s post on CPO views of supply management metrics ignited a heated debate among Supply Excellence readers. The post cited comments from the CPOs of National City Corporation and AllianceBerstein stating that cost reduction was the chief metric for supply management performance.
Since then, I have been flamed by angry readers defending the finer points of [...]
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