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Last month, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Phil Angelides, Chairman of Apollo Alliance, along with other business, labor and clean energy leaders introduced the “Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009,” a bill intended to facilitate the development of domestic clean energy manufacturing and production. The purpose of the bill is [...] Some supply risks can be caused by the customer firm itself and thus provide a real chance of avoidance in the first place. What? You thought supply risks were all caused by forces beyond the customer firm’s control. Think again. While catastrophic supplier failure and supply continuity disruptions have been noted as supply managers’ biggest worries, how many [...] The recent article in Purchasing, “Allegheny Technologies Designs a Broad Risk Strategy”, (8/14/2008) is one of the rare glimpses into how some companies are actually dealing with supplier risk. Rather than just talking about risk or not acting on Sarbanes Oxley directives to address supplier risk, some companies are taking action. What I found particularly positive [...] McKinsey recently published the results of its global survey on managing global supply chains. To boil down a seven-page article: they aren’t managing the risk. Or to quote the article: “relatively few respondents…say that their companies are translating the importance they place on these [risk] factors into corporate action.” Are we surprised at this conclusion? Of [...] In a rush of enthusiasm about a lean supply chain, some firms expect that their suppliers will embrace lean with equal passion. Passion for lean can be contagious, but getting suppliers to adopt lean requires much more work than lean inoculation or indoctrination. Before rushing off and sending out an announcement that suppliers should adopt lean, [...] When my company was a small supplier to Boeing, I was of course happy to have landed them as a customer. Our relationship was excellent and added value to both parties. Boeing took a chance with my company, an emerging technology business. And the initial bureaucracy that we had to go through to become a supplier to such [...] Many companies are concerned about suppliers who are larger than they are. How do you get a 500-pound gorilla to cooperate with you? Can you actually use the term “manage” in relation to a big supplier company? Actually, can you ever really manage even small suppliers? Not really. You can try to manage and influence the [...] In an effort to flow lean to suppliers, firms are often internally focused. They are concerned with how suppliers can support their needs and tend not to view the situation from a systems perspective. Often it is about what suppliers need to do to satisfy their customers — which is certainly an essential ingredient. However, firms [...] For those of you planning to attend the ISM 93rd Annual Supply Management Conference in St. Louis, MO next week (May 4-7), I will be presenting a session called: “Best Practices to Develop Supplier Scorecards and KPIs“. My session is on Monday, May 5th from 10:40 to 11:40 am. My book, Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence, will be [...] Some of the hidden cost drivers in the supply chain are relatively easy to uncover, measure and address by adopting classic lean approaches. However, many supply chain problems begin and end with the customer-supplier relationship. The extent to which critical issues, wastes and cost drivers can be identified and mutually addressed [...] |
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