For the last few months as the future of the US auto industry has been debated, the idea that Detroit would be in fine shape had they simply been producing greener cars seems to be taken by most of the media as gospel truth. But with US and foreign automakers’ sales lagging far behind ‘07 [...]
Green Cars Are No Panacea for Detroit
January 6th, 2009 · No Comments · automotive sector, sourcing, supply management, supply risk
Tags: automotive sector·procurement·recession·sourcing·supply risk
Sharing Best Practices, Questions & Opportunities
December 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment · best practices, contract management, design and development, sourcing, supplier management
Jason Busch recently penned a post on the use of Web 2.0 tools in procurement and lamented the absence of a killer app that has become an indispensable site professionals use on a daily basis (although he did tease us with a possible solution in early 2009). Point taken. After all, even the “bright spots” [...]
Tags: best practices·commodities·contract management·design and development·procurement·sourcing
Buyer’s Market Opportunity (video): Indirect Spend
December 22nd, 2008 · No Comments · Services Procurement, best practices, sourcing, supply management, supply market dynamics
Last week, Mike Petro outlined the opportunities presented by direct materials. On a similar note today, regular Supply Excellence contributor Rachel Rutkoski explains buyer’s market conditions for indirect spend and identifies several hot categories, including:
Labor - Rising unemployment means “buyers should evaluate any category where labor is a main cost component.” There is a glut [...]
Tags: buyer's market·indirect spend·procurement·recession·Services Procurement·sourcing·SupplyWatch·temporary labor·Top 5 Sourcing Opps·transport·webinar
Buyer’s Market Opportunity (video): Direct Materials
December 19th, 2008 · 4 Comments · oil/energy, sourcing, supply management, supply market dynamics
Metals Category Manager Mike Petro makes the case for why “right now is the time to source direct materials”…
If you’d like a closer look at the facts and figures Mike cited - as well as information on other categories that provide immediate strategic opportunities - you can find them in the mid-quarter SupplyWatch update here. [...]
Tags: buyer's market·commodities·metals·procurement·recession·sourcing·steel·SupplyWatch·Top 5 Sourcing Opps·video·webinar
Chrysler and Ford: What’s an Auto supplier to do?
December 18th, 2008 · 1 Comment · automotive sector, best practices, oil/energy, outsourcing, sourcing, supplier management, supply management, supply market dynamics, supply risk
Earlier today, Chrysler and Ford both announced they’ll be temporarily shutting down some production facilities. Chrysler is idling all 30 of their plants for at least one month, while Ford is extending their usual holiday shutdown for an extra week.
As Congress debates how best - or if - to address the plea of the automakers [...]
Tags: automotive sector·buyer's market·commodities·procurement·recession·sourcing·supply risk

Loading ...