Organizing for Supply Chain
Toyota Cites 2011 Japanese Earthquake as a Paradigm to Prepare for Semiconductor Bottleneck
Despite the semiconductor shortage that has rattled many automotive industries, Toyota does not feel it will be affected in the near future. The Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer, as reported by CFO Kenta Kon, has taken the initiative to “[incorporate] some […]
Building a More Immune Supply Chain: Focusing on the Basics
What should organizations do when confronted by a global disruption like the pandemic? This question was faced by many companies and private sector organizations who were faced with a sudden need for PPE and other supplies, and discovered that all […]
Will People Ever Go Back to Work in an Office?
As we continue to plow through the difficult times, with COVID cases spiking in multiple states across the country, the hopes for a normal return to the workplace is diminishing every day. It is unlikely that we will ever return […]
We Need Supply Chain Immunity, not Resiliency: A Position Paper
In today’s post I am sharing insights from a position paper that my colleague Dan Finkenstadt, PhD, myself, and other academic and government officers are working on. The paper is an attempt to create some logic in the fact of […]
Assessing the True Return of Procurement Transformation on Total Shareholder Return: A Tough Proposition
In my earlier book with Gerard Chick on “The Procurement Value Proposition“, we advance the notion that buildoing a business case for investing in people, process, and technology improvement in procurement is key. Many procurement assessments developed by consultants seek […]
Procurement Leaders Blog Post: Cross-Functional Teaming is Easier Said Then Done
Continuing my reporting of the Procurement Leaders meeting in Miami, I sat in on a very interesting session that included three professionals from very different walks of life: Captain Harry Thetford – Defense Logistics Agency Robin Shahani – CPO, TD […]
Procurement Leaders '17: Supplier enabled innovation is a foundation for procurement's strategic repositioning
I had the opportunity to sit in on a number of sessions at Procurement Leaders American Congress 2017 in Miami this week. Despite the snowstorms that prevented many from making it down, there was a full house at the opening […]
Best Practice: Creating a Governance Mechanism for Analytical Learning in Organizations
I recently interviewed a large semiconductor company that developed a cross-enterprise initiative to drive analytical learning across its entire supply chain. The company established a supply chain IT organization that reports up to the CIO. It focuses on leveraging the corporate […]
More Insights on Deploying the Digital Supply Chain
On the second day of our executive focus group on the LIVING Supply Chain, the group took the opportunity to share insights regarding the emerging trends in the future of supply chains, with a focus on digitization, development of analytics and […]
Who Owns Contract Management of Major Projects: Procurement or the Business?
Proponents of integrated supply management propose that successful Contract Management (both pre and post award) requires a collaboration between the business functions (Engineering, Operations, Maintenance) that have the need (demand, specifications & service levels) that require contracting with third party […]