Earthquakes Show Supply Chain Risk Extends Beyond Supplier Financial Viability
Inside many companies, the recession has caused supply risk to move from a secondary issue to a primary concern. Despite this interest, many companies are approaching the topic from a narrow scope, considering only supplier financial viability as a r…
Friday Rant: Are Acquisitions Good For Spend Management Users?
There’s been a lot of chatter in the market these past few weeks about acquisitions. Some larger players are clearly headed to Costco to look for warehouse bargains (smaller formats and Ma and Pop shops aren’t worth the time for these larger players,…
Rolling out a Supplier Performance Management Program — Key Process Steps (Part 1)
The other week, I had the chance to catch up with an old friend and colleague, Paul Martyn, who runs marketing in North America for BravoSolution. According to feedback I’ve heard from several parties who’ve looked at their tool recently, BravoSoluti…
2010 Prediction: Companies Focus on Supplier Social and Performance Transparency
In the first column in this prediction series on building supplier transparency, I focused on the area of financial and business transparency. But this is only one type of supply chain transparency on which companies will focus on building in 2010, h…
Is Business Intelligence the Answer to Supplier and Supply Chain Management?
Over on Supply Chain Management Review, an article by two Wipro consultants suggests that business intelligence (BI) software, such as the kind acquired by SAP and Oracle in recent years, is key to building supply chain visibility. The two argue that…
2010 Prediction: Transparency Rules the Supplier Management Focus
Spend Matters believes that in 2010 transparency — not simply compliance management or supplier on-boarding — will begin to rule the supplier management focus. In recent years, many organizations have begun their supplier information management jou…
Supplier Management: Is the “Toyota Way” on the Way Out?
I’m pleased to report that after a weekend driving around in a Toyota Avalon, a model impacted by the recent acceleration recall, I’m alive and well. The same can’t necessarily be said about Toyota’s supply chain. According to a recent article in Sup…
Don’t Bet on a Sustained Recovery Just Yet (But Do Put Your Chips on Volatility)
Over on Spend Matters affiliate site Metal Miner, Stuart Burns recently took out his virtual pen and analyzed the latest U.S. GDP numbers which, on the face if it, may suggest a solid recovery. After all, it appears that we’re “expanding at the faste…
Will We See an Automotive Supply Chain Recovery?
There have been quite a number of headlines of late about
risk and renaissance in the automotive supplier community. When new
bulbs eventually begin to break through the frozen economic tundra of
the nuclear automotive winter, supply markets…
The Asian Auto Boom: Contrasting India and China
The first time I was in China, I was shocked at the level of interest there
in premium cars, often Western brands. Sure, there were the countless
knock-offs of older Western models, cheaply produced in China (my
favorite reminded me of the o…
