Supply Chain View from the Field

Category Archives: Supplier Relationship Management

1. 600 Dead in Bangladesh: Is there a soul to the enterprise?

   May 6, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Procurement Sustainability, Retail Logistics, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability

   News of the increasing death toll in Bangladesh continues to pour in, with the latest at 600 found dead in the rubble of the Rama factory complex.  Demonstrators are protesting apparel offices (such as Gap’s offices in San Francisco) to demand better working conditions in Bangladesh factories.  But how easy is it for companies to [...]

   [3 comments]

2. A Great Meeting – Insights on the Future of Procurement from BP, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, and others

   April 30, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Strategic Cost Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Talent

   We had a series of great presentations this week at the SCRC meeting. Bill Knittle from BP first presented his experience on building a supplier performance measurement system, and how this has evolved into a true supplier relationship management system.  He talked about the importance of segmenting the supply base, and building out a small [...]

   [No comments]

3. Random thoughts on “close-to-home-shoring” based on my travels last week…

   April 27, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: BRIC Supply Chain, Contract Management, Global Supply Chain, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships

   Last week I had the opportunity to travel first to New York and then Monterrey, Mexico, and speak with a number of people to explore perspectives on the current economic situation we find ourselves in. Early in the week I sat in on a lecture given by Clay Christenson (from Harvard Business School) to a [...]

   [No comments]

4. Moving beyond “minimally acceptable” sustainable supply chains…

   April 23, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Procurement Sustainability, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability

   A lot of people are emphasizing the need to drive sustainable supply chains.  “If we have a more sustainable supply base”, we hear from advocates, “…it will cost less, and we will be better corporate citizens.” I’m not sure I buy this line of thought, although I would certainly put myself squarely in the camp [...]

   [No comments]

5. Managing supply chains in a fragile environment

   April 19, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Forecasting, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management

   Gerard Chick and I had a good chat over skype this morning, and we both started jotting down a few facts…. Banks are buying up gold and moving currency out since 2009.  A friend suggests that the banks feel it is very unstable out there, and are hoping for some stability.  But the dollar, the [...]

   [No comments]

6. Sub-tier supplier risk continues to be a challenge

   April 3, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Category Management, Supplier Relationship Management

   The issue of sub-tier supply risk continues to be a challenge in many of the companies we work with at the SCRC.  For example, one large company has experienced big problems in the form of tier 2 supplier mechanical failures that wind up in their product.  Even though they had a problem, they were totally [...]

   [No comments]

7. Thinking Differently About Procurement: The SCRC Meeting Theme on April 29-30, 2013

   March 14, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Global Supply Chain, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply Market Intelligence

   Our next SCRC meeting will focus on “The Future of Procurement”, and will be held on April 29-30, at the NC State University Club in Raleigh, NC.  We will be hosting a number of senior executives reflecting on this theme, including Ron Reising from Duke Energy, Pat Murzyn from Caterpillar, Bill Knittle from BP, Jason [...]

   [No comments]

8. College grads – trouble finding a job? Think welding….

   March 5, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Commodities forecasting, Strategic Cost Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Talent

   We recently worked on a study examining the market for pipeline construction services.  Across North America, projects like Keystone are only the beginning of growth for pipelines in oil and gas.  The market for pipeline construction is growing, and there will continue to be competition for capable suppliers in the marketplace.  In areas such as [...]

   [No comments]

9. The Dreamliner Debacle Continues….the Death of Outsourcing?

   February 5, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Aerospace Supply Chain, Business Process Outsourcing, Design for Supply Chain, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management

   Tim Cummins, CEO of the International Association of Commercial and Contract Management (IACCM), notes in his blog Commitment Matters that Dreamliner’s battery problems are perhaps due to the lack of procurement competencies that exist in the organization.  This is an interesting observation, and as he predicts, hardly marks the end of outsourcing.  In fact, many [...]

   [2 comments]

10. Thinking About the Future Role of Procurement/Purchasing/Supply

    November 12, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Global Supply Chain, Strategic Cost Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management

    The field of supply management has undergone quite a few changes over the past several years. Leaders in the field are always thinking about what the future of procurement will look like. There is even some confusion about what to call it: Procurement? Purchasing? Supply Management? Does it matter? In view of this, I was [...]

    [3 comments]

11. Exploiting social media to drive sustainable supply market intelligence

    September 13, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Procurement Sustainability, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Risk, Supply Market Intelligence, Sustainability

    As organizations seek to become more sustainable, they are recognizing the limitations they face with current data systems that collect and consolidate technical information on your suppliers and their process inputs and outputs in the supply chain.  Such systems ideally need to be able to construct value stream maps, life cycle analysis, carbon footprints, and [...]

    [1 comment]

12. Airbus, Boeing, and CAT Discover Supplier Integration Comes Down to Hard Work

    July 11, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Aerospace Supply Chain, Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Market Intelligence

    The article in today’s WSJ refers to the new approach being used by Airbus and Boeing to “integrate” suppliers.  Supplier integration and collaboration are terms that are thrown around a bit too much for my liking, primarily because they don’t reflect the true hard work that underlies this term. Boeing discovered this in 2007 according [...]

    [1 comment]

13. They’re Posted! Latest Supply Chain Sustainability Benchmark Reports!

    July 3, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Aerospace Supply Chain, MBA Supply Chain Programs, Procurement Sustainability, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability

    Every other year, a team of MBA students from the Poole College of Management take a one credit class I teach on supply chain sustainability.  As part of this class, students are assigned to teams to study a group of companies within a particular industry, and by applying the Supply Chain Sustainability index developed through [...]

    [No comments]

14. Socialization: An Important Dimension of Supply Chain Relationships

    May 8, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Business Process Outsourcing, China Supply Chain, Customer Relationship Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Strategy

    The ability to capture value from your business relationships is increasingly seen as critical differentiator in firm success (Cousins et al., 2006). Much of the strategic purchasing literature addresses the role of spend analysis, supplier selection, leveraging, negotiation, and contract management – yet there is a critical element of strategic supply management that occurs after [...]

    [No comments]

15. What Will the Role of the CIO Look Like In the Next Five Years?

    April 3, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Category Management, Contract Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Systems

    I recently spoke with Todd Taylor from Apptivo, who is writing a book on IT technology management.  Apptivo provides IT business technology management, and is focused on transparency of IT application usage.  Todd is also affiliated with the CIO Technology Council, and is writing  book on current trends in IT.  He notes that CIO’s are [...]

    [5 comments]

16. Lean Aerospace Supply Management Developments

    April 2, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Aerospace Supply Chain, Business Process Outsourcing, Contract Management, Forecasting, Global Supply Chain, Inventory Management, Logistics, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Strategy

    In a recent set of interviews, I had an opportunity to learn about some of the recent developments in the aerospace industry, that is happening in both commercial and defense sectors.  As organizations seek to drive inventory out of the supply chain and improve working capital, while simultaneously reducing leadtimes and customer responsiveness, they are [...]

    [No comments]

17. Category management begins and ends with stakeholders

    February 29, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships

    While not always the case, companies often use category teams to develop supply management strategies. Supply management strategies often apply to categories—general families of purchased products or services. Examples of major category classifications might include castings, electronics, motors, or wiring harnesses. These are some of the big, complex categories that are ripe for strategic sourcing [...]

    [1 comment]

18. Apple’s Labor and Human Rights Nightmare: Transparency is the Right Thing to Do

    January 18, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Global Supply Chain, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability

    For several years, we have been extolling the importance of Labor and Human Rights violations as a critical component of sustainable supply chains. In a previous post, we also identified a number of companies identified as the “best” in our list. Apple was one of the companies on our list! We also discovered that the [...]

    [No comments]

19. Are you really a customer’s of choice?

    January 15, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Category Management, Contract Management, Customer Relationship Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply chain analytics, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Market Intelligence

    Within the context of the current financial crisis, the importance of sustaining critical supply chain relationships has received more attention than ever. Despite the return to a “buyer’s market” in some sectors, the need to build and sustain supplier relationships is not obviated. Indeed, in an environment of heightened supply chain financial risks, supplier performance [...]

    [2 comments]

20. Small and Medium Suppliers as a Source of Innovation (and of Risk!)

    January 9, 2012
    by: handfield
    categories: Supplier Relationship Management, Supply chain analytics, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Systems

    I recently did a webinar on the topic of “Supplier Management: The Need of the Hour”, for a number of supply chain executives through the Zycus spend management series they have been sponsoring. The webinar discussed some of the challenges that exist for small and medium sized companies who are seeking to develop relationships with [...]

    [2 comments]

21. Lenovo Relies on Agile Communications in a Disruptive Environment

    December 6, 2011
    by: handfield
    categories: Global Supply Chain, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Risk

    One of the highlights of our SCRC meeting was a presentation by John Zapko, VP of Global Procurement at Lenovo. In his presentation to the group, John discussed some of the critical enablers that have led to Lenovo’s incredible success, and current position as the number 3 top PC manufacturer in the world. Lenovo has [...]

    [No comments]