Supply Chain Management Blog : Supplier

Closing the Loop, The Operational Side of Things

christianverstraete — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:41:00 GMT

In Supply Chain, we have to keep the business flowing, regardless of the variations in demand. Integrating key partners, sharing information and events, using dashboards and identifying alternative options to react to the unexpected help operations and...(read more)

Closing the Loop, Optimizing the Supply Chain

christianverstraete — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:50:00 GMT

I'd like to start a series of blog entries titled "Close the Loop" and addressing how, through a better use of supply chain information, companies can improve their operations, creating a more agile ecosystem while reducing risk. In this...(read more)

The Tangibles and Intangibles of Supply Chain Collaboration

christianverstraete — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:38:00 GMT

The latest recession has gotten a profound impact on many supply chains and forced rethinking strategies . In a quest to reducing costs, many have diminished safety buffers, established lean thinking, and redesigned their flows. In that process they have...(read more)

Don't forget the Cloud Supply Chain

christianverstraete — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:09:00 GMT

There are an increasing number of cloud based Supply Chain services, offered as SaaS, appearing on the market. But that is not the subject of this blog entry. Actually the question is way simpler. Are you aware of all the players participating in providing...(read more)

Collaboration, let's look beyond the tools

christianverstraete — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:10:00 GMT

Two weeks ago I was asked to run a workshop on collaboration at an event in China. Based on some of the ideas I shared in an earlier blog , I developed the content of the workshop. What daunted on me, listening to people in the audience, is that both...(read more)

Ecosystem collaboration, from tools to an integrated approach

christianverstraete — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:13:00 GMT

Delays encountered by both Airbus and Boeing have demonstrated the importance of cross-enterprise collaborations as eco-systems become increasingly global and complex. As both companies continue battling for the number one position, they rely increasingly...(read more)

Trade-offs between Supply and Demand

christianverstraete — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:45:00 GMT

A lot is written about S&OP, Sales & Operations Planning , and I will not resume it here, but S&OP only goes as far. Fundamentally what COE's are confronted with is balancing supply and demand to maximize revenues while delighting customers...(read more)

HP Supply Chain - Procurement Risk Management

christianverstraete — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:33:00 GMT

I had promised last year to focus some time on describing best practices in the HP Supply Chain and how they helped making the company more responsive. Today I want to focus on one, called Procurement Risk Management (PRM) that has been widely publicized...(read more)

Put yourself in the shoes of your suppliers

christianverstraete — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:49:00 GMT

In my last post, we talked about the need for building partnerships with suppliers. I mentioned the difference in approach taken by the Japanese and the western companies. But how do we change our approach? What do we do differently? Do we just blame the procurement department, or are we ready to do something about it?

Before arguing what we could do, let's put ourselves in the shoes of our suppliers. I believe we can all quickly summarize what we expect from them. We want assurance of supply, flexibility, and obviously all of this at the lowest cost and with the highest service. And by the way, we want the latest and greatest products and we want them to be predictable. We absolutely hate surprises.

But what questions are our suppliers asking themselves when dealing with us. Actually many of us know the answers because we also are suppliers to other companies. And what questions are our sales teams asking themselves? Well let's sum up a few:

Can I make money in this deal?
Am I in it for the long run?
What's the risk of being dumped in the next round of negotiations?
How much extra discount will I have to give?
Do I have enough visibility of what the customer is requiring to be able to anticipate the demand?
Can I trust those guys to understand I also need to be successful?

Those are very good questions any business person should ask. But do we keep them in the back of our minds when we negotiate with our suppliers. Are we looking for a "win-win" situation? Maybe we should get our sales teams talking to our procurement guys.

Now, you can argue that the only thing you are interested in is getting the lowest price as you need to make money. You have a point, and as long as everything works fine, you will get the benefits. But in case of shortage, who will first be dumped by the supplier? Is it the customer where he makes good money or the one that doesn't profit him? Well, you probably know the answer. You also know your frustration if you happen to be that customer.

Do you agree with me, do you recognize yourself in what I just wrote? Give us your feedback. By the way, in the next post, I will review how the supplier participates in building a more resilient enterprise.