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Your inbox quickly fills with concerned emails highlighting rising costs, delayed materials, and your teams urgent efforts to assess the situation and determine the next steps. Theyre feeling the heat most, as sudden trade policy curveballs throw procurement plans into chaos. What Is Agile Procurement?
Fragmented systems, rising cost pressures, and shifting risk profiles are making it harder than ever to manage procurement effectively. Strategies that worked just a few years ago are now too rigid, manual, or disconnected to keep up. How do you begin developing a procurementstrategy?
Treating suppliers as essential partners in the field of direct spend management—almost like customers—can be a key component of a successful company strategy. Supply Chain Knowledge and Risk Mitigation: Suppliers have a direct impact on direct spend with raw material and transportation costs as two big drivers of operating margins.
They integrate AI into demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and logistics operations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and mitigate risks. Companies must react after the fact, often incurring higher costs and reduced service levels. Executives are left making high-stakes decisions with incomplete information.
Planners are uniquely positioned with an end-to-end focus, from procurement of materials, through manufacturing and engineering, to the movement, storage, and delivery of finished products or services. SCP involves meticulously planning the journey of a material or product from its raw material stage to its final consumer.
Trade policies are constantly evolving, forcing companies to assess how these changes impact customer demand, supply networks, fulfillment strategies, and cost to serve. As a result, the company had to lay off workers and reevaluate its entire strategy – even as tariffs are paused – due to a lack of supply chain flexibility.
The problem is that the reduction of costs within one function does not necessarily drive value. For example, if I improve the cost structure in transportation, procurement, manufacturing and sales independently, what decision support framework decides the right trade-offs? The answer is not th e Gartner Top 25. What should we do?
If you’re evaluating procurement technology or exploring ways to drive more value from existing systems, chances are you’re looking beyond tactical fixes – you want a smarter, scalable strategy. Misaligned priorities across finance, legal, and procurement create friction that delays decision-making and reduces impact.
Traditionally, procurement has been a process weighed down by manual tasks, fragmented systems, and endless paperwork. Today, procurement is undergoing a transformation. While procurement teams have long worked to add strategic value, Artificial Intelligence (AI) amplifies their impact.
While SAP has had procurement analytics solutions, last year at Spend Connect Live, SAP announced the Spend Control Tower. Daniel Chapman, the senior director of process transformation for procure to pay at Warner Music, was a keynote speaker. However, those savings can leak away in several different ways.
Excess inventory weighs down supply chains. By producing only whats needed, when its needed, they eliminate the burden of forecasting errors and reduce warehouse dependency. Powered by digital tools, on-demand strategies offer a cleaner, more responsive path to production. But in volatile markets, they often backfire.
Industry-specific content is available for processes like Source to Settle, Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, and more. A customer story highlighted saving thousands of hours annually and improving on-time delivery through automating part order processing. Automate: utilizes technologies such as RPA, IDP, and IPaaS.
Procurement and supply chain management are often used interchangeably—but in practice, the lines between them can blur in ways that create real friction. Misaligned priorities, siloed systems, and unclear ownership can directly impact key performance indicators like cost savings percentage and procurement cycle time.
They never leveraged their point-of-sale data to detect market shifts, and the supply chain organization prioritized cost reduction. On our second priority, we delivered another strong year of industry-leading productivity, with holistic margin management cost savings of 5% of the cost of goods sold. ” My thought: ouch!
Procurement People should learn the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) Process. Procurement professionals can contribute significantly to the S&OP process by providing valuable insights into supply chain dynamics, identifying potential risks, and optimizing sourcing strategies.
From raw material sourcing to logistics and regulatory compliance, stakeholders across the value chain will need to prepare for structural adjustments. Each reformulation may involve regulatory submissions, quality assurance reviews, and potential consumer communication strategies. Production scheduling may also be affected.
Supply Chain Resilience: Strategic partnerships with reliable suppliers guarantee consistent material availability, regardless of production scale. Dependencies on suppliers who cant meet increased demand can lead to material shortages and production delays. This reliability prevents bottlenecks and keeps production flowing smoothly.
Change management was not solely focused on suppliers, buyers, and material managers all had to change how they operated. There were 65 material managers included in the initial rollout. For material managers, he made the case that they would be much more likely to get their inbound supplies on time. He needed to influence them.
Restructuring Global Value Chains & Tariff Reduction – A Continuous Evolution for Supply Chains. This article was originally written and published for DHL in January 2020 and focused on the trade wars and how to leverage opportunities for tariff reductions. Product strategies. without being subject to tariffs.
Ask a procurement or transportation professional if they have a good demand signal and expect a laugh. Technology can automate role-based views up and down the river of demand for all roles: marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing, procurement, transportation, and human resources. A negative FVA increases cost, inventory, and risk.
Factors such as geopolitical shifts, extreme weather events, raw material shortages, and infrastructure challenges can significantly impact operations. Effective demand planning also optimizes inventory levels, reducing costs associated with storage and carrying inventory.
That’s exactly what Kyle Krug , Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Marketing at Legacy Supply Chain Services, suggests. The SAP staff explains, “The good news is that you can now leverage smart technologies and tools to better power increasingly sophisticated supply chain optimization strategies.”
In a previous post , I made a case for how the Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) are smarter together. Accordingly Supply Chain and Procurement will need continuous collaboration. Such sourcing events can be in the context of direct materials or logistics capacity.
This article explores the disruptive nature of supply chain disruptions, the significance of collaboration in managing direct spend, the role of Purchase Order (PO) Collaboration in tracking materials throughout the order cycle, and real-world challenges faced in PO Collaboration.
Richard Lebovitz and Joe Lynch discuss leading inventory attack teams. Richard is the CEO of LeanDNA , a purpose-built analytics platform for factory inventory optimization. About Richard Lebovitz Richard Lebovitz is the CEO of LeanDNA , a purpose-built analytics platform for factory inventory optimization. acquired by SAP).
When tariffs hit, crucial components that were once affordable can become prohibitively expensive, forcing companies to rethink their sourcing and production strategies. Solution: Real-time scenario planning combined with agile sourcing strategies to maintain supply chain continuity.
Leveling up your inventory life cycle can be crucial, but keeping all the fundamental factors jumping is essential to let the life cycle evolve. However, if the life cycle stock is healthy, inventory management is smooth. Inventory management revolves around the pivotal concept of the product life cycle. Click here!
You’ll learn how to leverage data to streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and exceed customer expectations. Data analytics also offers actionable insights for: Inventory Management: See stock levels across multiple locations in real-time. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in.
From raw materialprocurement to final product sales, these supply chains’ ability to minimize inventory through product life cycle controls and facilitate prompt product supply is every bit as important as product differentiation strategies. To achieve this, having the right planning solution is crucial.
According to McKinsey & Company, procurement accounts for 50% to 80% of a company’s cost base. That’s why organizations zero in on strategies to achieve procurement cost reduction. The key thing to remember is that cost reduction in procurement isn’t just about slashing expenses.
An increasing lineup of advanced digital solutions have given manufacturers the edge to transform and achieve better inventory control. The manufacturing industry is constantly searching for new and inventive ways to improve inventory management. Types of inventory that can be optimized.
Paul is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Verusen , a supply chain intelligence platform, purpose-built to help manufacturers streamline their MRO supply and materials management. About Paul Noble As Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Verusen, Paul Noble oversees the company’s vision and strategic direction.
Decoding the Procurement Department: A Comprehensive Guide to Roles and Responsibilities This supply chain article provides a comprehensive overview of the procurement department within an organization. Read In Detail About Procurement Department Here 2.
Managing inventory effectively is a constant challenge for businesses. Misunderstandings about the dynamics of inventory fluctuations, like the bullwhip effect, can exacerbate these challenges. Misunderstandings about the dynamics of inventory fluctuations, like the bullwhip effect, can exacerbate these challenges.
Investor concern about material risks from climate change have created new reporting frameworks, such as those by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). UPS saves time and money at a level worth reporting on earnings calls, but they are also more sustainable.
Tariffs are reshaping sourcing strategies, forcing tech upgrades, and making inventory planning a lot more complicated. For global businesses relying on real-time logistics and lean inventory models, the question is how prepared is your supply chain when tariffs hit? How Do Tariffs Affect Supply Chains?
GEP and the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Supply Chain Resource Cooperative surveyed supply chain, procurement and IT professionals across a range of industries to gain insight into their priorities and strategies regarding supply chain resilience and optimization. Alex Zhong, Director Product Marketing at GEP.
Automakers must model dual-path sourcing strategies and reintroduce buffer inventory—not just for parts, but for regulatory flexibility. Tariff uncertainty may prompt manufacturers to increase safety stock levels or pre-purchase materials, squeezing working capital. But failing to seek alternatives is also risky.
As these organizations act on their climate pledges, the responsibility to reduce emissions is cascading to suppliers at every level. That includes everything from raw materials and manufacturing to packaging and logistics. Known as Scope 3 emissions, these are also the most difficult to measure and manage.
Overhauled MRO Strategy Propels UK Food Manufacturer to Save Millions, Boost Productivity For most companies, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a significant challenge in managing operations. The agreement has delivered well beyond the intended savings, helping catapult the manufacturer and the integrator to substantial growth.
Management practices such as lean manufacturing and just-in-time inventory management, along with globalization, have made tremendous impact on cost and service, but have accentuated risk. Balancing supply and demand by orchestrating the flow of materials and information is a key requirement for managing operational risks.
We explore the concept of holistic inventorystrategies focused on the form and function of inventory. In the process, we learn that only 15-20% of inventories are safety stock and that the current APS frameworks do not enable a holistic analysis of the form and function of inventory. Instead, we need to Jump.
How AI is Transforming Manufacturing: Strategies, Benefits, and Use Cases Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a huge topic and one that is constantly changing as research and development efforts push out the boundaries of whats possibleand whats already happening! Smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 AI also plays a key role in quality control.
For instance, a student struggling with inventory management concepts can receive supplementary materials, interactive simulations, and one-on-one tutoring sessions tailored to their needs. Conversely, a student who quickly grasps procurementstrategies can be challenged with advanced case studies and leadership projects.
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