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…
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…
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 – 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…
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…
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…
A few years ago, we published two white papers about Should Be Costing, The Road to Should Be Costing Part 1 and 2. In the papers we provide an overview of different (and easy) methods buyers can use to develop should cost models. Our Cost Management Certification provides the knowledge and tools to develop and…
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…
At APD, we’ve learned that details matter when you are conducting a search for new suppliers of direct materials. Starting a search without having consensus on what you are looking for is a recipe for wasted effort and prolonged search times. So what are the details that matter? Capabilities First and foremost, manufacturers need to…
There is a common mistaken belief that Lemmings hurl themselves off of cliffs in an act of mass suicide to control their population. Actually, the Lemmings are participating in a mass migration. The fortunate land in the water and complete their migration; the unfortunate land on the rocks below. Similar to Lemmings, manufacturers have participated…