Supply Chain View from the Field

Category Archives: Supply Chain Innovation

1. Coaching Suppliers and the Implications of Doing So

   April 15, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supply Chain Innovation

   “Supplier Relationship Management” is a term that’s thrown around a lot in procurement, and generally assumes that the relationship with the supplier is “managed” by the buyer.  This doesn’t leave room for what could be a more open interpretation of a relationship as a team effort, rather than a hierarchical relationship.  For this reason, I [...]

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2. Patrick Hopkins at Coupa: Coca Cola’s four truths of procurement to pay in action

   April 10, 2013
   by: handfield
   categories: Contract Management, Procure to Pay, Strategic Sourcing, Supply chain analytics, Supply Chain Innovation

   At the Coupa INSPIRE procurement conference in San Francisco this week, the Chief Procurement Officer of Coca Cola Consolidated, Patrick Hopkins, shared his views on the “4 Truths of Procurement”, and how he has operationalized his views through the deployment of Coupa procure to pay software. Coke has an incredible history dating back to 1886, [...]

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3. The Power of Bloomberg in Creating Supply Chain Intelligence and Risk Alerts

   August 27, 2012
   by: handfield
   categories: Strategic Sourcing, Supply chain analytics, Supply Chain Innovation, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Risk, Supply Market Intelligence

   Supply chains are difficult to study.  People do not want analysts knowing about their supply chains.  So creating market intelligence around supply chains is extremely challenging.  Yet analysts rely on supply chain information.  They study market reports, and they react to announcements.  Research by Hendricks and Singhal shows that stocks can drop by as much [...]

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4. Using the Influence Model to Improve Quality and Cost in Product Design

   August 15, 2012
   by: handfield
   categories: Design for Supply Chain, Strategic Cost Management, Supply Chain Innovation, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Quality

   I recently spoke to an individual whose title was Director of Engineering Operations at a major technology company.  He shared with me details regarding his role, and the relationship to the supply chain organization. He first shared that this company has made  a big investment in having technical expertise in the supply chain.  As opposed [...]

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5. Key Forces to Consider that will Impact the Future Global Logistics Environment

   August 7, 2012
   by: handfield
   categories: Global Supply Chain, Logistics, Supply Chain Innovation, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Strategy, Supply Chain Systems, Sustainability

   Today’s global logistics environment is characterized by increasing complexity and a much greater number of parameters shaping the logistics environment. The speed of trends is breathtaking and increasingly complicated – and there is a need for the public sector to provide greater levels of support to facilitate economic growth. One of the immediate implications is [...]

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6. Random Thoughts on the Impact of Frugal Innovation on the Supply Chain

   April 4, 2012
   by: handfield
   categories: Category Management, Global Supply Chain, Strategic Cost Management, Strategic Sourcing, Supply Chain Innovation, Supply Chain Management, Supply chain Relationships, Supply Chain Strategy

   In this week’s Economist, an article by Schumpeter provides some interesting views on the emerging concept of “frugal innovation”.  He cites the example of the Tata Nano, a $2,000 car  developed in India, which makes a new car within reach of ordinary Indians and Chinese.  He also cites a new book, Jugaad Innovation” by Navi [...]

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