Cost models provide buyers with valuable benchmarks to validate supplier pricing. Used effectively, they help drive optimal design, reduce the time required to bring products to market and help companies succeed. When it comes to understanding supplier cost structures, I admit that I am biased. After all, understanding supplier cost structures was what started my…
“I want everybody to have the same experience that we had because it was really a good experience and a good savings for us working with APD.” The recent retirement of an APD client spurred an interesting conversation. The Vice President of Purchasing and Supply Chain at a plastics packaging manufacturer turned to APD for…
The global economy is undergoing a Digital Transformation at record pace. Declining costs in bandwidth, storage and computing enable organizations to optimize, connect and model data to improve decision making and to drive results. Whatever the experts call it: Industry 4.0, Digital Economy, Internet of Things, Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning…
In whack-a-mole a person hits the mole forcing it down only to have it pop right back up in another location. In quotation whack-a-mole buyers push on an area of supplier costs to get pricing to go down only to have costs pop-up in another area bringing prices up as well. Buyer and suppliers continue this…
Expectations are that hard hit manufacturing sectors will see improving revenues in 2021, although how quickly improvements will come is greatly dependent on the world’s ability to rebound from the ongoing covid surge. With little control over revenue growth amid a global pandemic, company leaders are looking to their purchasing teams to aggressively drive cost…
Over the past 16 years we have looked at hundreds of commodity strategies. Most often the strategies are contained in long PowerPoint presentations designed to demonstrate how well the supply base is aligned with the company’s long-term strategies. Almost all provide good analysis of the size, shape and form of the supply base that is…
Attend our New Cost Management Certification Program – a 4 Month Development Program for new buyers seeking essential skills and experienced buyers seeking cutting edge techniques to success Click Here to Download our Brochure I have always thought that good buyers transition into good managers and finally good leaders. What characteristics do good buyers…
Purchasing success cannot be achieved by purchasing organizations or individual buyers without cost success. But what is cost success? One of the best purchasing leaders in the manufacturing industry explained it to us this way: “The best purchasing organizations and buyers can answer these questions: What does it cost? What should it cost? What is…
We have 15 years of data that shows that buyers who move from price-focused, competitive purchasing to cost/value-focused, collaborative purchasing can achieve savings of 8-18% (see figure). I wish we had a similar level of data on the career progression experienced by buyers who develop cost knowledge and utilize it in a collaborative way. I think…
Many resin prices hit bottom in April and May due to a combination of evaporating demand and steep price drops for oil in North America. June and July have brought rebounds even though demand has not fully recovered, primarily because of increases in natural gas and oil prices, as well as growing demand for exports…