Category Management

Nov 2, 2023

Supply Chain Leadership V: Howard Richman

Lessons Learned from a Career in Procurement As part of our weekly Supply Chain Leadership, I interviewed Howard Richman, who I am co-authoring a new book with (“Procurement Confidential”). His… 

Apr 30, 2023

Which Industries are Most Affected by Fed Rate Increases?

NC State statistics grad students, Shaoyu Wang and Bryan Bittner collectively worked on a project to analyze the impact of the federal rate hikes on various industrial sectors.  I challenged them… 

Oct 28, 2022

What does”Supplier Relationship Management” really mean?

In a report I worked on in 2013, I conducted interviews conducted with 25 chief procurement officers (CPOs) on one of the most important drivers of value creation and resilience… 

Sep 23, 2022

US Air Force Defense Acquisition and Contract Officers Come to NC State

We were proud to host a group of 20 contract officers from a number of different US Air Force bases across the country, including Wright-Patterson (Ohio), Hill (Utah), Pope (NC),… 

May 30, 2022

Procurement and supply chain executives are struggling in the current environment of high inflation and missed deliveries.

A new study that the SCRC published with GEP examines the increasing pressure that supply chain executives are getting when it comes to responding to supply chain disruptions.  The report… 

May 4, 2022

Rising Interest Rates: Maybe It’s Time to Bring Back the Forgotten Art of Price Analysis

Price analysis is a subject that is often overlooked in supply chain education, (although it is certainly a big part of our chapter on Strategic Cost Management in Purchasing and… 

Dec 13, 2021

SCRC Supply Chain Index contributes again to the 2021 Wall Street Journal Top 250 Best Managed Companies

This year, as in the past five years, our supply chain index contributed to the overall ranking of firms in the top 250 best managed companies, as ranked by the… 

Jul 26, 2021

Human Resource Planning for Procurement, Contract Management and Supply Chain Management

I spoke recently on the subject of Strategic Human Capital, and the importance of developing human resource planning for supply chains with Dan Finkenstadt at the NCMA World Congress.  Much… 

Jun 15, 2021

Behind the Numbers of the SCRC Supply Management Index

The SCRC’s Supply Management Maturity Index was highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, that identified the companies best prepared to weather the storm ahead in terms of supply… 

Mar 17, 2021

The Big Texas Chemical Freeze Raises Issues on Resiliency of the Petrochemical Supply Chain

Today’s Wall Street Journal article on the impact of the Texas winter storm on the petrochemical industry highlights many of the challenges that exist with this supply chain, that have…