Value Chain

A few weeks ago I was attending a meeting of my local ISM chapter. I was speaking with the purchasing manager for a local college about supply risk and mentioned the risk track and the session at the ISM Conference in San Diego in April, “Understanding and Choosing Supply Risk Solutions: Software, Content and Analytics” that Jason Busch (Editor, Spend [...]

As a supplier, has a buyer ever tried to sell you dreams of a long-term relationship, repleat with lots of business opportunities and a harmonious partnership? You hear all the right key words: long-term, partnership, mutually beneficial, increased business, trust, win-win.   It goes something like this: we may be beating you down on your customary [...]

If you didn’t think space exploration was dangerous enough, here’s something else to worry about. NASA has been looking into outsourcing parts of the space exploration program to outside suppliers, reasoning that this is the best way to speed up rocket development and to save money. They reasoned that private contractors would be able to provide the [...]

Boeing recently announced that it was planning to replicate all 787 parts built in the Puget Sound area in a new facilities being built in North Charleston, South Carolina. According to a recent article in the Seattle Times,  Boeing machinists are seeing this as the first step toward moving all parts out of Boeing’s Puget Sound plants. [...]

While American auto suppliers have not been directly bailed out, many have survived due to the bailout of their customers, GM and Chrysler.  No so for small Italian suppliers.  According to a WSJ article, the Italian auto industry has not received government bailout money. So the auto supply chain, comprised of much smaller suppliers than the [...]

Yesterday I wrote a guest post on Spend Matters about the recent raid on the Gibson Guitar plant in Nashville, TN for using illegal rosewood, despite the company’s use of certified tonewood providers. I discuss the fact that  even when companies use good preventive measures to avoid supply risk, they still need to have good plans [...]

The Purchasing Management Association of Canada (PMAC) is offering a monthly webinar series on various topics of interest. As the second in the series, I am giving a webinar entitled: Evaluating Your Suppliers: Practical Approaches to Getting Results. It runs from 12:00 pm until 1:30 pm ET on Thursday, October 15th. This is a practical overview [...]

The government has helped bail out Chrysler. The government has not bailed out its suppliers. And now Chrysler is looking to get back in the game on the backs of its suppliers, who, if they are still in business, are not eager become lenders to their customers. Chrysler has received over $10.4B from the government so far. And now [...]

In a takeoff of the U.S. government’s Cash for Clunkers program, Toys R Us began a program to help get recalled and dangerous children’s equipment such as cribs, bassinets, high chairs, etc. out of people’s homes. I touched on the subject of dangerous toys and equipment in a post a few months ago, Another Supply Risk: [...]

I read today’s WSJ article about how customers are using their suppliers to improve their own cash flow: Big Firms Are Quick to Collect, Slow to Pay  and thought, same old, same old. I addressed this phenomenon in an early blog post: Another Kind of Banker – Your Supplier?  This situation has been going on [...]