Strategic Cost Management
Apple Procurement Leader Hails from NC State
Today’s WSJ front page shares the important role of one of Apple’s top senior executives who runs much of the procurement and supply chain activity for Apple – Tony Blevins. Mr. Blevins studied industrial engineering at North Carolina State, and […]
First NCSU Procurement Leadership Program a Great Success!
We held our first ever Procurement Leadership workshop this week, hosting a group of executives from Altria, American Red Cross, Cheniere Energy, Smith & Nephew, RSCS (YUM! Brands) and the US Air Force. The mix of executives from both the […]
Are US-Chinese Tariffs Part of the New Normal?
Today’s blog post is a guest post by my former student, Krunal Sonpal. The topic is a timely one: the on-going US-Chinese tariffs and what it means for supply chain executives. This is an issue that should cause every supply […]
Hospitals Suffer from a Lack of Market Transparency: New Evidence from a Research Project with SCWorx
Healthcare in the United States of America is a USD $3.2 Trillion industry, yet is often described by experts as a “cottage industry” due to the lack of maturity surrounding its contract management and supply chain practices. Research suggests that […]
Master Data System Enables Quick Wins Through Component Standardization
Having a robust master part and master supplier list can yield many low hanging fruit for organizations in the early stages of their procurement transformation. Many of these opportunities can be driven by looking at redundant part numbers, contracts that […]
Excess and Obsolete Inventory: An Outcome of a Series of Unfortunate Events!
Inventory continues to be a problem for many companies. In particular, inventory that is considered “Excess and Obsolete” often accumulates and has to be dealt with – often at the end of the fiscal year. During tax season, this is also […]
What Buyer-Supplier Collaboration Looks Like in Real Life….
I had the privilege of facilitating and witnessing first hand a great example of what a true strategic partnership looks like recently, when a large pharmaceutical brand met with a large global Contract Drug Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) at their site. […]
Is the FAR getting in the way of Early Supplier Involvement in defense projects?
Product development within the U.S. defense industry tends to follow a waterfall-phased lifecycle development approach beginning at the concept level and concluding at the subsystem/component level. The concept level design phase is typically summarized in a system concept document. This […]
Resin prices vary a lot more than you think! RTi helps you understand why..
I had a great opportunity to meet with CEO Pete Suerken from Resin Technologies Inc. (RTi), yesterday, and share thoughts on how should-cost models are being actively used to drive improved visibility into the true costs of resin, paper packaging, and […]
Supply Chain Predictions for 2018: Real-Time, Innovation, Cognitive, Blockchain, Industry-Academic Partnerships, and Taking a Stand!
I had an opportunity to work on a number of exciting projects this past year, and in the process, spent a lot of time talking about digital supply chains with a lot of really informed people. Here are a few […]