Supply Management
If you paid $300 million to a company run by a 22 year old CEO and his certified massage therapist VP, would you double check to make sure you got what you paid for? Heck if I ordered a pizza from a couple of characters like that I would look inside the box before ever [...]
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About a month ago I had dinner with the head of supply chain for one of the world’s most recognized food service brands. We weren’t even through the salad course when he lit into me about previous Supply Excellence posts encouraging buyers to consider alternative fuels, materials, and lighting methods.
“Next time you’re at one of [...]
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If Spend Management has a limiting axiom, it might be the idea that there is a limit to how much cost you can take out of an item, service or process. After all, cost can not go to zero…can it?
With a slightly different perspective on things, it turns out that cost can nearly go to [...]
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News of the credit crunch has been unavoidable in recent months. Hopefully your business (and home mortgage) have been spared and you’re in a position to weather the storm. But what about your suppliers? If they’re having any credit/cash flow problems, that’s a huge risk to your supply chain. And buyers’ companies may be unwittingly [...]
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The most important part of the spat between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic over biofuels is not whether BA is stuck in the “old economy” and can’t adapt (as tempting as that might be given the headlines about opening day at Heathrow Terminal 5) or whether Richard Branson is the ultimate public relations wizard.
The real [...]
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In the analyst industry, we used have a saying that “when the mainstream press catches on to a trend, it is certainly almost over.” I’d like to think that is the case with the automotive supply chain dilemma, but I’m afraid I would be wrong.
While Supply Excellence has been tracking the ongoing instability and decline [...]
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While the economy has become the top issue for business and supply management executives alike, there remains some debate on how best to address it. Recent research of over 160 global procurement, finance, and supply chain executives offers some answers.
As its title suggests, the third-annual Spend Management Priorities and Challenges study reveals strategies and approaches [...]
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With the outcome of what some are calling “the most important U.S. Presidential race ever” still uncertain, many business executives are fretting over the economic, tax, and trade policies of the eventual President No. 44.
Yet, savvy procurement and supply management professionals aren’t waiting for the election outcome. They know that, regardless of who wins the [...]
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The massive run up in commodity prices followed by last week’s sudden sell off has everyone wondering … are commodities the next bubble to burst? In fact, typically cool headed coverage in journals like the Financial Times warned of a looming “big fall” in commodities. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here.
Relatively [...]
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A recent post on Logistics Management’s Loose Change blog tried to make that case that truckload rates will defy prevailing wisdom and actually begin to climb in the coming months. The logic is based on two things: First, that attrition rates of truck fleets would tighten up capacity. Second, that tonnage increases in recent months [...]
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