Category: Industry News

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The Supply Chain: 3/25/2015

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The Supply Chain: 3/11/2015

 

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  • Here is apple’s entire supplier responsibility standards document.  It clearly addresses all of the Chinese factory supply chain issues they have faced over the last 6 years.  Interesting read:
    https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdfs/supplier_responsibility_standards.pdf
  • When hospitals manage their supply chain:

    One of the biggest factors in successfully cutting supply chain costs is having real-time, actionable data. It’s not enough to have data, you have to manage the data in a way that makes it useful to empower better decision-making. While this is easier said than done, the increased availability of data standards and new technologies to help you manage data will make it possible.

    The important data points you need to extract from your ERP system and contract repository include: vendor master, contract master, purchase order headers, item master, invoice payment lines, spend classification, contract items, purchase order lines and invoice/payment header. Additionally, your purchase order spend must be identified and rationalized.

    http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/blog/supply-chain-expertise-enters-hospital-c-suite

  • 6 Supply Chain Challenges:

    Everyone is talking about ‘big data’ and its impact on the supply chain but be aware: it won’t solve all your problems! It is easy to be swept along by the promise that big data is going to answer all of your questions about supply chain performance (and even those you didn’t think you needed to ask) but the reality is that big data, to a degree, is a misnomer. The challenge isn’t managing the data, the challenge lies in realising the insight that the data offers. With the right tools in place organisations can gain visibility into the supply chains to identify areas of concern as well as areas of potential growth in order to make them more streamline

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/procurement/3863/Six-challenges-that-could-break-the-supply-chain 

  • Infographic: Supply Chain Risks
    http://www.kinaxis.com/Global/resources/papers/supply-chain-risks-infographic-kinaxis.pdf
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The Supply Chain: 3/4/2015

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  • The Western procurement issue in China (Yes, the US did have some kind of back-door spying equipment installed in American-branded equipment but China isn’t an innocent party – they have been ripping off US patents and designs for years to get their manufacturers competitive.  )

    Yes, the US did have some kind of back-door spying equipment installed in American-branded equipment but China isn’t an innocent party – they have been ripping off US patents and designs for years to get their manufacturers competitive.

    http://www.techworm.net/2015/02/leading-western-technology-brands-like-apple-intelmcafee-shunned-from-chinas-approved-tech-listing.html

  • SAP: Welcome to the new era of procurement:

    Procurement can and will play an increasingly strategic role in managing this virtual enterprise, leveraging technology to simplify the way complex business gets done and manage their operations in a new and dynamic way that keeps their companies ahead of the competition. Procurement is evolving from service to a function. And with increasing frequency, it is focused on business value and enabling supplier innovations as opposed to just driving procurement savings through cost reductions.

    http://www.news-sap.com/procurement-2015-evolution-continues/

  • Four ways to access the strength of suppliers:

    A company with a high proportion of long-term contract agreements in its order book is likely to be more secure than a firm completing work on a shorter term basis. However, a retained contract should not prompt reckless overconfidence; it is often a good idea to look over notice periods and analyse the probability of changes in market conditions or demand which could reduce a client’s requirement for the business’ goods or services.

    http://www.supplymanagement.com/blog/2015/02/four-ways-to-assess-the-strength-of-suppliers

  • Failure to Work With Minority Owned Businesses a Challenge in the Private and Public Sector

    Last month, the NAACP Florida State Conference led by President Adora Obi Nweze released an Economic Development Report Card on the records of targeted cities, counties, school districts and private corporations in the State of Florida. What stood out amidst all of the findings were the poor minority procurement practices that were consistent through the public and private sector. In summary, most local governments spent less than two percent with veteran, minority and women -owned businesses.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dedrick-muhammad/failure-to-work-with-mino_b_6736984.html

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The Supply Chain: 2/25/2015

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  • 6 fixes for the federal procurement process (there are some points that carry over to the private sector):

     Procurement decisions are taking significantly more time than ever before. “Sliding to the Right” is a commonly used phrase these days. More are even being cancelled after proposals are submitted. Contractors spend countless hours and thousands of dollars bidding, often working late nights, holidays and weekends. Contractors often spend anywhere from 20-35 percent of a contract’s value on business development, capture, and proposal development compared to the private sector, which typically spends three to eight percent. Make decisions quicker and be respectful; it takes a lot of money and effort to respond to your RFP’s.

    http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/acquisition/blog/2015/02/20/procurement-fix-legislation-rule/23754523/

  • UHC Member Hospitals Achieve More Than $450 Million in Supply Chain Savings

    The growth in member savings is attributable to many factors, including higher-volume purchasing through UHC’s supply contracting company, Novation; greater adoption of UHC’s advanced analytics; and member collaboration with UHC experts to identify savings opportunities linked to physician preference items, supply utilization, and standardization.

    http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/02/19/uhc-member-hospitals-achieve-more-450-million-supply-chain-savings

  • How eSCRM protects the supply chain
    http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/it/blog/2015/02/19/escrm-protects-supply-chain/23694359/
  • Talking to a Rising Supply Chain Star: Brian Dean, General Dynamics

    Being primarily a military contractor, like my company is, communication is a huge thing we use to build relationships with suppliers. A lot of times, there is little information we can share with the rest of the world but when we can share forecast or plans or anything like that it goes a long way to creating a strategic relationship with our suppliers. They can take that information and plan better on their side, which all of us want to do, and in the long run it makes things better for both of us. Also, when we find a supplier that is high performing, we want to promote them throughout the company and put them where it is a good fit. From our side, we get economies of scale, and the supplier gets more exposure into other lines of business. It’s all a give and take, working on finding ways that we can help each other meet our goals.

    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3219&doc_id=276651

  • Procurement Leaders offers a post that seems to refute IBM’s generational survey:

    So what, you may ask? For starters, millennials are very different from any of the previous generations. It starts with their upbringing and constantly being surrounded by mobile technology and social media. Apparently, they are also quite motivated, but not necessarily willing to compromise their personal life (we hear of more and more CPOs rethinking the 9-5 office life). And because millennials are so ambitious, they will also want to progress at a faster pace than the organisation can keep up with.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–maggie-slowik/2015/02/17/do-you-know-who-is-on-your-procurement-team-

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The Supply Chain: 2/18/2015

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  • What happens if US Ports keep closing?

    Kelly Kolb, Vice President of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said: “A shutdown would not only impact the hundreds of thousands of jobs working directly in America’s transportation supply chain, but the reality is the entire economy would be impacted as exports sit on docks and imports sit in the harbour waiting for manufacturers to build products and retailers to stock shelves.

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/supplychainmanagement/3831/What-happens-if-the-US-ports-keep-closing

  • Lessons from Apple

    Any violations found during the audit, which for Apple might include underage workers being used, document falsification, intimidation of or retaliation against workers participating in audits and significant environmental concerns, are raised with senior managers both at Apple and the supplier itself. That supplier is then placed on probation until they successfully pass another audit. During probation that supplier is monitored closely and if no commitment has been shown to then the relationship is ended.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–tim-burt/2015/02/12/supplier-audits-lessons-from-apple

  • How to be a great procurement boss…

    Great bosses understand their organisation’s business objectives and ensure their own team’s targets align with them. Any good CPO will understand what is expected of their team, but the challenge lies in translating the big picture to each individual. Explain the link to them. Work with your staff to help them understand how the different dimensions of their role delivers value. Start by touching on efficiency, productivity, innovation, customer service and other non-cost related drivers which are critical success factors and they’ll start to see the connection more clearly.

    http://www.supplymanagement.com/blog/2015/02/five-top-tips-how-to-be-a-great-procurement-boss

  • Call the lawyers: Here are the real reasons why contract award protests are on the rise

    Don’t get me wrong, that is one reason why the numbers are increasing — by 5 percent in 2014, as I reported in November. But a panel of procurement experts pointed to a couple other reasons: more missteps by a more inexperienced government acquisition workforce, and the disintegration of the “protest stigma” that once existed in the industry.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2015/02/call-the-lawyers-hereare-the-real-reasons-why.html