eyeforprocurement, the procurement events company, contacted me earlier this week to discuss a barter: I could share interviews with three supply management executives in exchange for promoting the organization’s upcoming Supplier Management Forum, which will be held in Miami April 17 - 18, 2007.

A seemingly fair trade in my opinion. Check out the full conference agenda and registration information here. If you register by the end of this year, you can access an early bird discount of $400 off the full registration price. Supply Excellence readers will get an additional $100 discount when you cite “supply excellence” in the discount code field of your registration form.

The first interview is with Ronald D. Schnur, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing for Coors Brewing Company. Schnur oversees $1.7 billion of the brewer’s spending with 3,000 suppliers across a number of key categories, such as aluminum cans, bottles, folding cartons, transportation, and energy.

Schnur says Coors has a centralized strategic sourcing organization that is organized into four areas: packaging sourcing, brewing sourcing, indirect sourcing, and process and technology.

Schnur was questioned as to how Coors was organizing to improve spend visibility and compliance — the leading strategies identified in Supply Excellence’s Top 5 Supply Strategies study. Here are some of the excerpts from the interview:

Question: A recent Capgemini survey of global chief procurement officers found the most significant business driver for 2007 is compliance to contracts and improved visibility of spend with suppliers. Are these also your priorities and if yes why are they important to you? What priorities do you have for 2007?

Answer: Priorities for 2007: Using and maintaining a best-in-class sourcing roadmap to drive activities, more regular supply management reviews (scorecards, quality reviews, adherence to contracts), more integrated sourcing supply chain (P2P, Supply Management and Strategic Sourcing) and supplier enablement on SRM tools (increasing number of commodities and spend).

Question: With the rise of new technology focused on sourcing and supplier management, buyers are more often faced with the decision of which tool to take out of the toolbox. What was your best investment in terms of technology and what benefits did it give to you.

Answer: Two tools: Investments in creating a more integrated sourcing supply chain and in creating end-to-end visibility to spend data being collected. (Coors strategy echoes plans for strategic sourcing and spend analysis improvements identified by the nearly 300 executives surveyed in the Top 5 Supply Strategies study.)

Question: What strategic direction are you gearing toward in order to better your position for long-term security and continuity of your supplies?

Answer: We have an active risk management program that focuses us on mitigating risks for ensuring the supply of critical goods and services.

Question: Good relationships come out of good performance. What metrics do you use in regard with your suppliers and how do you measure their performance. Delivery, quality, cost – what message do you give to your suppliers and what do you expect from them?

Answer: $/bbl, Quality defect, Service down-time, Diversity supplier spend, Days payable.

We have a clear and consistent message that we expect performance excellence in all of these key criteria and each year, we raise the performance level required to achieve our Supplier Gold Award.

Question: Low-cost country sourcing seems to be vital to maintaining competitiveness, but execution pitfalls remain. Are you sourcing in low-cost countries and if yes, how did you organize your low-cost country supplier management? What obstacles did you have to overcome?

Answer: Yes (Promotional Items). We do very little sourcing in the traditionally recognized low-cost countries of China, India, Indonesia because our relative purchase scale is small and many of our large dollar spend categories are capital intensive driven and not labor-cost driven.

Question: Collaborative Sourcing is the next stage of the advanced supplier management . How much value do you currently create because of the way you work with your suppliers?

Answer: We have done a tremendous job of rationalizing our direct materials supplier base so today, we are absolutely focused on total value chain improvement opportunities. We are “walking the supply chain” with our key suppliers and looking to eliminate product and process waste throughout the extended customer/supplier supply chain.

Like many manufacturers, Coors has advanced sourcing and supplier management techniques for its critcal direct materials spending, but is still maturing its operations and sourcing approaches for indirect spend categories. You can learn more about supply management approaches from Coors and dozens of other leading companies at the eyeforprocurement Supplier Management Forum. Get more details here. (And remember to use the name Supply Excellence to receive an additional registration discount.)

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