Celebrating 10th Anniversary
Advanced Purchasing Dynamics reaches a milestone in June and July in that we have been in business for 10 years. We incorporated in late June 2004 and started operations in July. So please indulge me while I spend some time reflecting on why APD was started, what we have achieved and where we plan on going.
Quite simply APD was started because I always wanted to run my own business. In 2004 at age 45 I found myself exploring franchise opportunities and thought; “I know purchasing; love it; why not build a business around purchasing”. The element of purchasing I really liked, and continue to like, is implementing best practices that have a profound impact on material cost, quality and delivery. And so we started.
Our belief has been that, for manufacturing buyers, a deep understanding of the cost drivers of the materials they are buying is crucial to controlling cost, developing comprehensive supply base strategies and succeeding in negotiations.
Building around this theme we have:
- Built an experience base that has reviewed and cost modeled over 900 supplier manufacturing locations around the world. Once complete, the models enable our clients to truly early source with confidence that they will be able to price using the agreed cost models; design to suppliers’ cost structures; provide competitive quotations to their customers.
- Developed proprietary software, SYRE, that provides clients with the sophisticated, knowledge based e-RFQ and analysis tools required to control material costs.
- Helped clients staff purchasing organizations with the right talent from California to Eastern Europe.
- Trained hundreds of buyers to develop the skills to understand costs, develop strategies and succeed in negotiations.
We are building our future now. Quite frankly, our plan is to continue to do what has been successful on a larger scale. In the past 6 months we have added resources in the US, India and the Philippines; launched numerous customers on our software and processes and entered into a partnership with Western Michigan University’s Supply Chain group to move to the next level of manufacturing buyer training.