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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. Companies leaning heavily on global sourcing? Theyre feeling the heat most, as sudden trade policy curveballs throw procurement plans into chaos.
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.
While past efforts focused on meeting compliance requirements, organizations are now working to proactively embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into their sourcing, production, and distribution activities. Building supplier capabilities while maintaining sourcing flexibility requires additional investment.
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.
For global manufacturers, managing direct and indirect material spend can get very complicated very quickly. Multiple legacy systems prevent procurement from standardizing processes and tracking what they’re spending with each supplier.
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. AI-driven logistics optimization has resulted in faster and more cost-effective deliveries.
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.
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.
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? What should we do? Never start with the process definition.
GEP’s sourcing expertise and market intelligence enabled the company to centralize sourcing and order management processes, strengthen key supplier relationships, and enhance supply chain resilience and agility. The result was a year-over-year savings of more than 3%.
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.
SAP is embedding its generative Joule across the SAP Ariba source-to-pay solution portfolio to make it easier for their customers to manage routine inquiries, such as status updates, summarization, and frequently asked questions. When a procurement contract is negotiated, the buyer has planned to achieve a certain level of savings.
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 became a logical place for leading healthcare systems to focus. As vice president of supply chain and procurement, Mr. Wengert was brought in to drive change. Hospital chains’ approach to procurement lagged far behind the practices employed by manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. “We
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 sourcingstrategies.
From raw materialsourcing to logistics and regulatory compliance, stakeholders across the value chain will need to prepare for structural adjustments. Sourcing and Ingredient Availability A central impact of this policy is the need to replace synthetic colorants with natural alternatives.
So, how can organizations tackle the inflationary environment by finding significant cost savings opportunities while improving resiliency? The key to this lies with sourcing. Before diving further, let us define what sourcing is. Sourcing is the practice of finding and selecting suppliers for a range of services (e.g.,
This facility will produce material for electric vehicle (EV) battery anodes, reducing reliance on Chinese imports. BSR Releases Their Future of Supply Chains 2025 Outlook The Future of Supply Chains 2025 primer by BSR outlines key procurement priorities and forces of change that will shape supply chains.
Procurement and Supply Chain Management are essential functions that can help companies navigate these challenges, but they are often siloed and operate in separate departments. Their metrics are often misaligned as well – supply chain focuses on service and procurement focuses on the cost of acquiring materials and services.
Supply chain was defined in 1982 as interoperability between source, make and deliver. Ask a procurement or transportation professional if they have a good demand signal and expect a laugh. Thse strategies need to be designed in the strategic and tactical time horizons and then deployed through S&OP planning and execution.
When tariffs hit, crucial components that were once affordable can become prohibitively expensive, forcing companies to rethink their sourcing and production strategies. Key takeaway Top challenge: Sourcing volatility driven by EV component shortages and fluctuating global tariffs.
Ivalua Spend Management Insights [ivory-search] 3 Powerful Ways Procurement will Drive the 2030 Saudi Vision Transformation May 30, 2023 | | ProcurementStrategy by Sara Omer What is the Saudi Vision 2030 Program? Procurement and supply chain teams will play a crucial role in making this vision a reality.
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.
The law requires importers to provide clear and convincing evidence of a forced-labor-free supply chain and tasks the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force with devising enforcement strategies. Businesses will need to ensure accurate data reporting across core operations such as sourcing, procurement, and transactions.
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.
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. Raw materials, energy, and labor go into making goods that never get used.
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.
They write, “This includes tackling bigger issues such as compliance, supplier relationship management, risk and disruption, responsible sourcing, and transparency. That’s exactly what Kyle Krug , Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Marketing at Legacy Supply Chain Services, suggests. ” Sourcing optimization.
I was also able to interview Brent after his session to get a little more insight on how Qualcomm dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic, what it means for the semiconductor chip shortage, and where the company is going with its digital transformation strategy. Qualcomm also faced a raw material shortage.
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.
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.
Automakers must model dual-path sourcingstrategies 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.
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.
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.
PWC has been publishing the annual procurement survey since 2015, capturing many of the trends in procurement that we now see in organisations, such as the focus on supplier risk management. Therefore, the survey gives a fascinating insight into the impact that the pandemic has had on procurement teams globally. “70%
Ivalua Spend Management Insights [ivory-search] Navigating CSRD Regulation: What Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance Leaders Need to Know June 12, 2023 | | Sustainability by Vishal Patel In an effort to drive sustainability and combat climate change, the European Union has introduced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
What are Green Supply Chain Strategies? A recent survey that Ivalua did in the UK, “ Gaining the green view, How smart procurement can kick-start sustainability initiatives ” showed that 87% of UK businesses see “greener” supply chains as a competitive advantage.
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.
It’s the key to transforming your supply chain from a source of frustration into a well-oiled, profit-generating machine. You’ll learn how to leverage data to streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and exceed customer expectations. That’s where data analytics comes in. Ready to get started?
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.
Over the past few years, supply chain and procurement pros have faced the challenge of navigating their enterprises through one disruption after another. Despite their best efforts, current events and market dynamics caught up with them, leading to issues managing their suppliers and sourcing the materials needed for their products.
Since January, Canadians’ weekly grocery trips have become a real-time indicator for the potential impacts of tariffs as shoppers have responded to threats with a showcase of buying power, prioritizing nationally sourced and manufactured products even before a single tariff was enacted. goods were “ rapidly dropping.”
Category management isn’t just another procurement trend. It’s a way for companies to group similar goods or services (like IT infrastructure, facilities, or raw materials) and manage them holistically instead of handling every purchase in isolation. The goal is to get the best results from every category.
As a result, most projects are not clear in scope, with the implementation of visibility as a “functional extension to existing process” lacking a holistic outside-in approach/strategy to sense, respond, and act. Too few companies have a holistic approach to embrace the plan, make, source, and deliver together. Reflection.
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