Finding Untapped Savings Opportunities

Having experienced unprecedented upward pricing pressure over the past 2 years, purchasing leaders are telling us that they are under increasing pressure to increase cost savings efforts and results.   A commodity-by-commodity review of company spend can often turn up untapped, easily implementable savings.   To start, take the time to write down the questions you should be asking about each commodity that…

4 Keys to Purchasing 4.0

The global economy is undergoing a Digital Transformation at record pace. Decliningcosts in bandwidth, storage and computing enable organizations to optimize, connectand 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 – its potential…

Are there Capable Machining Suppliers with Capacity in North America?

Nearshoring is becoming an important initiative for global manufacturing companies that haven’t already established a strong North American supply base. It’s making more sense to “make where you sell and buy where you make” given ongoing freight challenges and shifting economics (mainly labor costs and exchange rates) that have made sourcing to Asia a less…

Go Bionic

Go Bionic – is the recommendation made to CEO’s the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) recently published book makes in its recently published book Profit from the Source1. BCG lays out some ideas for creating a bionic purchasing department combining technology/data and skilled and knowledgeable personal just as man and machine came together in The Six…

Tips to Becoming Your Customer’s Favorite Supplier

The connected world has opened opportunities for customers to find just about any type of supplier to fulfill their needs.  Systems like Linkedin even allow suppliers to find you – I don’t know about you, but on a typical day I receive 2-3 Linkedin connection requests from suppliers touting their manufacturing capabilities from all around…

Manufacturers Intensify Sourcing from Mexican Suppliers

In recent days, we’ve had several conversations with manufacturing business leaders focusing on the potential crises looming in both Asia and Europe, potentially affecting their suppliers. They are concerned that intense Chinese military drills in the area surrounding Taiwan and Russia’s slashing of natural gas supplies to Europe are going to impact suppliers’ ability to…

Does Purchasing Have a Seat at the Big Table?

Approximately 70% of all manufacturing companies’ revenue is spent with third party suppliers.  The importance of the strategic management of that spend, across the entire purchasing lifecycle, cannot be overstated in terms of its impact on an organization’s financial success. But despite that imperative, do we, as purchasing leaders and professionals, have a seat at…