Supply Excellence

Top 5 Categories to Source Now

July 27th, 2009 · No Comments · Services Procurement, Top 5 Supply Strategies, metals, sourcing, spend analysis, supplier management, supply management, supply market dynamics

Our North American category management team hosted a Top 5 Categories to Source Now webinar last week (replay here). Supply Excellence contributor Pat Furey, set the stage with a discussion of several manufacturing, GDP and consumer indices, as well as a WSJ consensus forecast of economists, that all appear to show that the economy is [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·········

Cap & Trade: Steel Not Ready to Go Green Just Yet

July 22nd, 2009 · 2 Comments · LCCS and trade, Top 5 Supply Strategies, enviro/social sustainability, metals, sourcing, supplier management, supply management, supply market dynamics, supply risk

Battle lines have been drawn in the fight over carbon emissions. Late last month, the US House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey Bill, which in addition to an infusion of R&D money would create a cap and trade system for carbon, giving away 70% of the available carbon credits while auctioning off the remaining 30%. [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···········

Top Categories to Source Now Webinar

May 28th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Services Procurement, enviro/social sustainability, metals, oil/energy, sourcing, supplier management, supply management, supply market dynamics

The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) has asked me to present the “Top Categories to Source Now” in a webinar next week (details & registration here). As those of you who have seen other iterations of this presentation know, the categories themselves and strategies for approaching them change as market conditions shift. The big [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·············

Del Monte: Don’t wait for rock bottom on commodities

May 20th, 2009 · No Comments · AribaLIVE, events, sourcing, supply market dynamics, supply risk

Del Monte CPO Dave McLain gave Ariba LIVE Chicago attendees an in depth look at their commodity hedging operations yesterday. Frankly for many in the audience, it was likely an eye opening look at just how sophisticated some companies are at hedging against price volatility. Dave and his team are clearly ahead of many of [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ········

How the Economic Stimulus Package Impacts the Steel Industry

January 30th, 2009 · 2 Comments · LCCS and trade, Top 5 Supply Strategies, best practices, sourcing, supplier management, supply management, supply market dynamics

Industries asking for a piece of the economic stimulus package are frantically making their case to Congress, the President, the media and the general public. And although the package still has to go to the Senate for them to modify, the largess in the bill passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday will likely dole [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ······