With the economic challenges many companies are now focused on concerns that key suppliers will not deliver due to financial challenges. Well what happens when a Volcano in Iceland erupts and shuts down your supply chain? That’s exactly what happened to BMW and many other companies impacted by the recent eruption.
As I sit here in [...]

[Read more →]

An interesting article appeared in Bussinessweek.com regarding the new approach that the Chrysler Corporation is attempting with its supply base. Chrysler Chief Procurement Officer Dan Knott is attempting to undo the past few years of hardship that the economy and Chrysler has bestowed on its suppliers. Collaboration around accelerated payments and working capital management will [...]

[Read more →]

Toyota consistently ranks among the most respected global corporations and is well-known for their manufacturing prowess and strong supplier ties. That’s exactly why this week’s news about the accelerator problems for 4 million vehicles came as a shock to so many of us. The impact of this episode will be long-term, far-reaching, [...]

[Read more →]

In the context of last week’s surprisingly positive job numbers (so surprising in fact that President Obama had to do a last minute rewrite to his speech Friday), two news stories have shared additional good news for US manufacturing. They’re largely anecdotal evidence, but perhaps they show a return of manufacturing jobs to the US [...]

[Read more →]

Last week on SpendMatters, William Busch covered the shutdown at a Canadian Ford Motors factory that was caused by labor unrest at an auto parts supplier facility in India. I provided my views in the Comments, but wanted to share them here as well, since Supply Excellence readers may also have some insights on the [...]

[Read more →]