Over the last several decades, supply chains in retail have become increasingly complicated with more players and more “links in the chain.” Retailers around the world are increasingly dependent on outside parties for some of their most critical supply chain functions like fulfillment and distribution. And while this has allowed retailers to focus on [...]

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Last Wednesday, Purchasing magazine hosted a web forum on measuring the effectiveness of the procurement department. The panel, which was moderated by Purchasing Chief Editor Paul Teague, consisted of the VPs of Procurement from Exide Technologies and Harland Clarke as well as purchasing directors from Bell Inc. and Polaris. The replay is available here and [...]

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One of the best regular features in Purchasing.com is their monthly Black Belt Negotiators column. Great advice on playing hardball while improving relationships. July’s edition dealt with improving supplier performance management (SPM) and focused on how a security products manufacturer has begun keeping score on their suppliers’ price, delivery, cost, quality and service.
The most interesting [...]

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As Tim pointed out the other day, Telefonica has some impressive numbers to show for their e-sourcing efforts. But I think the truly amazing thing is that they’ve had such success while managing €25.2 billion in spend for the 4th largest telecom company on the planet, which operates across 21 countries. And given that they’ve [...]

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Sonoco’s Supply Systems Manager, Jennifer Roberts, gave an interesting talk on their Supplier Performance Management (SPM) efforts at Ariba LIVE in Brussels last week. Her team has led Sonoco’s efforts to move off of static Excel spreadsheets and to a more automated and far reaching approach. Ultimately, they want to bring every “critical” supplier into [...]

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