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Contract Management

Aug 23, 2017

Needed: A New Way to Manage Risk in Low Cost Countries

Nowhere are disruptions more prevalent than in Low Cost Countries (LCC’s), which have become the focal point for outsourced contract manufacturing for major apparel brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Gap, Apple, and others. As organizations have expanded their supply chains globally, they have moved to outsourced manufacturing that reduces cost, but which also exposes their brand to greater risk. “Instead of brand versus brand or store versus store, it is now suppliers—brand—store versus suppliers—brand—store, or supply chain versus supply chain,” as Lambert and Cooper[1] highlighted in a seminal research article in 2000. 

Aug 18, 2017

MBA and Engineering Supply Chain Student Teams Kick Off this Week: Risk, Analytics, and Block Chain on the Agenda!

Fall semester at the Poole College of Management kicked off this week, and a new group of MBA and engineering students walked into our hallowed halls.  In my MBA 541… 

Jul 23, 2017

The Supply Chain Team's Impact on Capital Projects

In industries that are going through a lot of Capital Expenditure investments, including construction of pipelines, LNG facilities, and mining operations, the role of procurement on the success of the… 

Jul 21, 2017

The Role of Translation in Contract Negotiation

In today’s Guest Blog, Alexander Zeller from Migration Translators comments on the supply chain for translation projects, how they occur, and how they are used in projects such as those… 

Jul 13, 2017

Writing Good Contracts Matters a LOT!

I have been having a lot of interesting discussions recently with both procurement and legal executives who are increasingly concerned with the state of their contract management processes.  This is… 

Apr 29, 2017

Hilarious Sourcing Videos

I had an opportunity to watch some hilarious sourcing videos recently that I discovered on a sourcing blog by Citro Strategy. The three scenarios depict the actions of “hardball negotiating” procurement… 

Oct 8, 2016

It's About Time for a new "World Class Supply Chain" Paradigm

As a young assistant professor at Michigan State University in 1992, I was part of a group called the Global Procurement Benchmarking Initiative. This initiative benchmarked over 300 global companies,… 

Oct 5, 2016

Contingent Workforce is a Major Focus for Procurement

The number of workers who are “contingent is growing rapidly.  Brian Hoffmeyer from IQ Navigator, a procure to pay solution, spoke today at IBM’s Empower event on this trend, and… 

Sep 7, 2016

Oil and Gas Companies Consider Alternatives to Lump Sum Bid Contracts

A recent discussion with my colleague Tim Cummins at IACCM suggests that an increasing number of oil and gas companies are exploring alternatives to traditional “lump sum bid” contracts, that… 

Aug 6, 2016

MBA Supply Management Class Prepares Exciting New Set of Projects for Fall 2016

It is that time of year again, and the SCRC team is getting ready to prepare for a new semester starting the week of August 15th!  As always, we have…