- Assessing and managing risk: Interview with IBM’s Louis R. Ferretti
As supply chains have become more global, the complexities of managing risk across vast and varied physical and political geographies arguably have grown by orders of magnitude. That’s a lesson that IBM, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has taken to heart. Beginning in 2009, the company undertook the task of building a complex supply chain risk management tool, now deployed globally, that provides managers with a way to examine supply risk in a much more robust fashion than ever before.
- Supply chain risk has companies on edge:
In its fourth such survey, the Allianz Risk Barometer 2015 shows “business interruption and supply chain” risks remains of most concern for 47 per cent of respondents for the third year in succession.
- Corrupt government procurement leads to $1.5 trillion mistake:
The F-35 fighter jet was supposed to do a bit of everything, as James Fallows explains in “The Tragedy of the American Military”. Instead, the aircraft can barely do anything: it has trouble flying at night, its engines have exploded during takeoff, and early models suffered structural cracks. There’s no end in sight, either. The all-in costs of this airplane are estimated to be as much as $1.5 trillion. (That’s approximately the same price as the entire Iraq War.) In an Atlantic magazine video, Fallows explains how such a disastrous project came to be—and why it can’t be stopped.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/01/pentagons-15-trillion-mistake-is-one-of.html
- Making supply chain green:
Workers in sustainable supply chain management must be adept at negotiating supply chain complexities and creatively applying broad business and environmental knowledge. Weaving between profit-related subjects and environmental research generated by NGOs, they innovate cross-sector solutions seamlessly. These workers represent a new breed of eco-polymath and they are in demand.
- Is There a Third Option for SCM Executives Looking to Revamp their Supply Chain Management Operations?
Improvements need to be achieved in months, not years, a reality that can only be realized through a managed services partnership in which the only measure of success is tied to the operational improvements resulting from the program. While many supply chain executives have never seriously considered managed services as an SCM option due to liability, performance or security risk concerns, this is indeed an economical, efficient and strategically viable solution that supply chain leaders should consider to deliver operational performance.
- What if the Problem Isn’t the Rules, but the People? [This is a good article on Federal sourcing, but it applies]
The study found that while there certainly are problems in buying and implementing the latest technology in government, “many federal leaders believe that these problems are the result of execution of the procurement process rather than regulatory requirements.” While nearly 40 percent of the more than 500 survey respondents had some influence in the procurement process, only one of them cited problems with the Federal Acquisition Regulation in written comments.
http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2015/01/what-if-problem-isnt-rules-people/102792/
The Supply Chain: 1/12/2015
- What is the most crucial goal for supply chains?
To be sure, the pursuit for lower-cost materials and more efficient logistics are very important to industries of all kinds today. But reliability of supply and precautionary redundancy have prompted firms in industries ranging from basic materials like steel and chemicals to high technology, to establish supply networks across the globe.
http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2015/01/08/what-is-the-most-crucial-goal-for-supply-chains
- Collaborative Sourcing: Cutting through bureaucracy:
“Rightly or wrongly, perception can sometimes be more important than reality, especially in large organizations. Trying to argue procurement’s case in a mire of organizational misconceptions is like complaining about your opponent who turned up to the gunfight with his pistol while you turned up with a knife.” In other words, the shift towards cooperation is one that comes through gradual acceptance, not stubborn debate. However, there are some steps procurement teams can take today to get the ball rolling.
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2015/01/the-zen-of-collaborative-sourcing.html
- IKEA Unleashes Bean Counters For ‘Procurement-Led’ Agency Review
This week IKEA is reaching out to agencies for what it calls a “procurement-led” exploration of agencies. While the brand is said to be perfectly happy with its incumbent agencies, Vizeum and Mother, IKEA UK and Ireland Marketing Manager Peter Wright said: “We continue to work happily with our agencies but, to be expected for a multinational organization, our procurement team occasionally reviews suppliers of marketing services.”
- Podcast: Joe Petriello – Procurement attorney (Federal procurement focus, but good information)
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/412/3775324/Joe-Petrillo-Procurement-Attorney-Petrillo-Powell-PLLC - Eliminating department clashes:
For those who missed the previous overview of the IT/Procurement Collaboration discussion, this presentation will expand on the benefits of supplementing internal IT resources with Procurement’s expertise to solve both sides’ challenges. Following a Source One survey in 2012, we were able to gather that 40% of procurement professionals believed they offered “Little to no value” to their organization’s IT department. Contrary to the thoughts of these 40% polled, strategic sourcing’s role in IT departments allows the maximum value achieved from IT budgets. With the often unclear software packages and complex maintenance terms, IT experts can inform Sourcing of the intricacies of technical portions of buying decisions while Sourcing can use that information to best analyze agreements and pricing structure.
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2015/01/get-rid-of-departmental-clashing-once.html
The Supply Chain: 1/8/2014
- Interesting podcast from the former Chief Procurement Officer of the department for Homeland Security (Nick Nayak). Interesting to hear about their procurement cycles:
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/473/3772691/Nick-Nayak-Former-Chief-Procurement-Officer-DHS
- Three steps on buying an analytics solution:
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2015/01/3-steps-to-buying-analytics-solution.html - Helping Supply Chain become more strategic:
Procurement, in contrast, has not completely shifted to the cloud yet and has a much broader landscape to cover. Depending on the organisation, procurement activity could be undertaken by individuals in the Procurement, Finance, HR, Operations, Shared Services, Supply Chain and Accounts Payable functions. While all functions will share the same overall business goals, they are unlikely to share the same approach to managing spend. This fragmentation has historically meant that getting all spend under management has been very difficult.
- Can your supply chain survive a cyber-attack?
1. Update your supplier vetting checklist
2. Look for potential “weak links
3. Redundancy is key
4. Test, test, test
5. Develop internal partnerships
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2014/12/would-your-supply-chain-survive-cyber.html
The Supply Chain: 12/29/2014
- How Pratt & Whitney selects suppliers in their supply chain:
A prospective supplier needs to know two things to be considered as a P&W supplier, Albertelli says. First, she advises that manufacturing processes would-be suppliers have traditionally done by hand – welding, for example – need to be automated as much as possible. Second, a company should have the flexibility to understand that it might not be the only provider of a part, which can be important if a company needs to invest in new equipment, such as robots.
http://www.onlineamd.com/becoming-tier-supplier-pratt-whitney-122614.aspx
- Why BI is key for (manufacturing) supply chain during the holidays:
Clearly applicable to our own usage as well…
http://smartdatacollective.com/sian-davies/287241/why-manufacturing-industry-needs-business-intelligence-badly-christmas-story - The top IT Health Mergers of 2014:
This post can fit in a few places, but it showed up in my procurement feed, so it will go on this post. Lots of familiar names on the list…
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/Top-2014-Health-IT-Mergers-and-Acquisitions-49497-1.html - Companies not auditing their suppliers for corruption and ethics violations (61% surveyed):
businesses need to dive deeper than their first tier of suppliers, to make sure their suppliers’ suppliers are driving through their systems the desired ethical and social policies, he said. “It is more difficult to get information on the second line because companies concentrate on that first line” of suppliers, said Mr. Chamberlain. “They’ve got to get first tier to do it.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/12/23/companies-turning-a-blind-eye-to-supply-chains/
The Supply Chain: 12/22/2014
I am introducing a new feature on the blog – The Supply Chain. This post will have information about what is happening in the world of SCM to help us get better ideas and confirm paths we are already walking down.
- Should Chief Procurement Officers (CPO) morph into Chief Metrics Officers (C#O)?
The IBM study found that most CPOs are gunning to develop a 360-degree global, integrated view of sourcing, which will by definition include assessing both inputs and outputs. They’re also focused on enabling innovation, primarily by finding ways to get projects launched faster, but with manageable metrics attached.
- TCS Recognized as a Leader in Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Outsourcing
http://www.itbusinessnet.com/article/TCS-Recognized-as-a-Leader-in-Procure-to-Pay-(P2P)-Outsourcing-by-Everest-Group-3668835 - Supply Chain Experts Take a Cue from Fruit Fly Research
VANs pull data from different areas of a company’s supply chain to analyze trends and provide early detection of possible issues. They also help companies remain a step ahead through the use of predictive analytics, which can recognize possible demand signals before they happen and ensure their products are being procured and distributed in sufficient quantity. Thanks to this approach, companies have the ability to avoid stock outs. A VAN can also be used to identify districts that may be in danger of running out of key commodities as well as those that may have excess stock, which could be transferred elsewhere as emergency supplies.
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2014/12/Supply-Chain-Experts-Take-a-Cue-from-Fruit-Fly-Research
Note on the term VANs: supply chain control towers—or visibility and analytics networks - Supply Chain Transparency: The Key Challenge In 2015?
In 2015, we need to see a greater understanding of how, where and why savings (or indeed discounts, kickbacks and rebates) are made, giving procurement and finance teams better toolsets to automate the measurement, reporting and validation of savings. Systems that are able to manage, accurately apply, record and provide awareness of contractual terms will aid the procurement function in delivering against governance targets, which inevitably will follow.
- Federal government struggles in IT procurement:
More than $1 out of every $6 in the federal government goes to contractors through a procurement vehicle, yet agencies continually struggle to get it right. That was apparent in 2014, a year marked by governmentwide efforts to reform acquisition, especially in IT.
- JP Morgan’s CPO (Richard Buccarelli) recently left the company
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/12/15/j-p-morgans-chief-procurement-officer-leaves-bank/