Last month, I made the case for sourcing steel (and other direct materials) based on sagging demand and excess capacity. Since then, the data we’re seeing indicates the drops in production, employment and demand are worse than expected:
US Steel Mill Capacity utilization was 36.3% for the week ending 1/3, versus a value of 88.7% for […]
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Last week, Mike Petro outlined the opportunities presented by direct materials. On a similar note today, regular Supply Excellence contributor Rachel Rutkoski explains buyer’s market conditions for indirect spend and identifies several hot categories, including:
Labor - Rising unemployment means “buyers should evaluate any category where labor is a main cost component.” There is a glut […]
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Metals Category Manager Mike Petro makes the case for why “right now is the time to source direct materials”…
If you’d like a closer look at the facts and figures Mike cited - as well as information on other categories that provide immediate strategic opportunities - you can find them in the mid-quarter SupplyWatch update here. […]
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My own travels last week offer validation from the trenches that Amex’s predictions for travel curbs will come to fruition. Travel restrictions were a hot topic at the Sourcing Interests Group (SIG) Conference last week. No less than five procurement execs said their companies had implement restrictions for all but sales related travel. (Only two […]
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Purchasing.com reported this week that American Express expects businesses to cut travel & entertainment (T&E) expenses in an attempt to contain costs in 2009. With the current state of affairs in the economy, it’s no shock to see companies looking for ways to cut back. And with significant spending on the T&E category, it’s certainly […]
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It’s good to see Verticalnet enhancing its spend visibility capabilities. I especially like their positioning around using the solution to identify M&A synergies. Historically, Verticalnet has taken a largely services-driven approach to visibility while also offering supporting software. This model came out of Verticalnet’s acquisition of Tigris, a consultancy with a large spend visibility […]
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Akoya, an upstart analytics vendor that analyzes feature-level CAD information to help procurement and engineering organizations conduct top-down “should-costing” efforts to understand how individual design features in a part impact total cost, is finally getting some media play. Earlier this month, Industry Week profiled the vendor’s approach to direct materials spend analytics. The article […]
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