Your supplier’s motivation. Buying decisions can be subjective, with buyers possibly having inbuilt bias towards a particular supplier. But one of the challenging aspects of Procurement is to consider which supplier is the ‘best’ for an item or service and is the ‘best’ the right supplier? Suppliers exist in business to sell you their offer. Potential suppliers can present very … Read More
Supply chains are too complex to be managed
Your business can be complex. How would you attempt to manage your supply chains when it is difficult enough to manage your own business? Too many articles and blogs that talk about ‘managing supply chains’ seem to assume that it can be done, but avoid describing how to achieve success. The individual supply chains that make up the supply network … Read More
Know your supply markets for best procurement outcomes
Making assumptions is easy. We are always learning from our mistakes. When buying products or services, we can make errors based on our assumptions. My recent error was caused through not being thorough in the market research for a new office. The assumption made was that as the new office is closer to the city, communications was a given; therefore … Read More
System for a decentralised logistics services business
Support a decentralised business with one system. Discussions about the benefits of either centralised or decentralised IT systems often assume a business has a main focus, with performance measures structured to improve the focus. However, what should be the approach to IT systems if your business has an overall reason for being, but is structured to be very decentralised, with … Read More
Technology devices can improve Logistics operations
Logistics applications and the future. The objective of Logistics systems is to enable the time related positioning of resources that will provide availability of goods and services for customers. Integrated ERP systems are designed to achieve this, but users are dependent on the software company’s design specification and upgrade cycle to achieve the objective. Meanwhile, changes continue in supply chains, … Read More