I just realized that I don’t subject you to Canadian humour enough. Since you don’t know what you’re missing, here are the 12 days of Christmas, Bob and Doug McKenzie style!
I just realized that I don’t subject you to Canadian humour enough. Since you don’t know what you’re missing, here are the 12 days of Christmas, Bob and Doug McKenzie style!
Apple has a bit of a reputation as being pricey. High quality, but pricey. However, when compared to the cost of the items mentioned in the Twelve Days of Christmas, you could go overboard on Apple products for 12 days for less than half of the cost. According to a recent article from the Associated Press (found on Yahoo! News), the cost of the 12 days of Christmas has increased 10.8% to $96,824 (according to the annual Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management). Yowzers!
So, for those of you on a budget, I give you the twelve days of Apple.
On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
an iPad in a gift case
On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the third day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the fourth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the fifth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the sixth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the seventh day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Eight iPhones Ringing,
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the ninth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Nine iPod Touches,
Eight iPhones Ringing,
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the tenth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Ten iPod Classics,
Nine iPod Touches,
Eight iPhones Ringing,
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the eleventh day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Eleven iPod Nanos,
Ten iPod Classics,
Nine iPod Touches,
Eight iPhones Ringing,
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
On the twelfth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Twelve iPod Shuffles,
Eleven iPod Nanos,
Ten iPod Classics,
Nine iPod Touches,
Eight iPhones Ringing,
Seven Mac Pros Humming,
Six iMacs Shining,
Five Macbook Airs,
Four Mac Minis,
Three Macbooks,
Two Macbook Pros,
And an iPad in a gift case.
And it only costs you a mere $45,942!
Product | Base Price | Units | Total |
iPod Shuffle | 12 | 49 | 588 |
iPod Nano | 11 | 149 | 1639 |
iPod Classic | 10 | 249 | 2490 |
iPod Touch | 9 | 229 | 2061 |
iPhone | 8 | 99 | 792 |
Mac Pro | 7 | 2499 | 17493 |
iMac | 6 | 1199 | 7194 |
Macbook Air | 5 | 999 | 4995 |
Mac Mini | 4 | 699 | 2796 |
Macbook | 3 | 999 | 2997 |
Macbook Pro | 2 | 1199 | 2398 |
iPad | 1 | 499 | 499 |
Grand Total | 45942 |
A recent article in eSide Supply Management on Negotiating for Mutual Benefit which outlined seven tried-and-true strategies for your organization to get more of what you both want from procurement negotiations had a number of tips that should not be forgotten if the goal is mutual benefit.
Survey the Landscape and Share the Wealth
Don’t limit purchases to nearby suppliers as suppliers in other geographies might bring additional benefits. Plus, if the number of suppliers is limited, spreading business among multiple suppliers can help to ensure their financial security and maintain a competitive market.
Negotiate for cooperation using the rules of “smartnership”
Don’t use win/lose tactics. Confrontation is not likely to elicit the collaboration and trust necessary for success. Instead, work with the supplier’s negotiating team to come up with a win/win scenario that the supplier will be incentivized to deliver on.
Insist that your supplier make a decent profit
A supplier that does not make a decent profit will not stay in business. It doesn’t matter how great the deal is if the supplier does not stay in business long enough to deliver. Plus, a buyer who insure’s a supplier’s financial success is likely to become a preferred customer, and this can deliver benefits for years to come.
In other words, the best results come from ensuring that your success is your supplier’s success.
First of all, let me apologize for taking so long to write Part II. I never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response to my previous posts, and it went to my head, and like a writer who wins a National Book Critics Circle Award for their first novel, I developed a severe case of writer’s block because the last thing I want to do is disappoint you. But thanks to some prodding, and the realization that I don’t have to tackle it all at once, I was able to capture three more life lessons that I learned in clown college that I’m sure will help you in your Procurement Career.
I hope you enjoyed these life lessons. Until next time, please join me and eleven of my friends as we take a ride in our clown car.
Let’s see. One order at a time. Ten orders at a time. I wonder which methodology is better?
But seriously, parallel picking, done right, is always going to be better than serial picking. The issue is, how do you do it right? An efficient parallel operation is going to not only have multiple people picking orders at the same time, but multiple people picking multiple orders at the same time.
But which way is best? Does each person run around picking multiple orders at the same time, collecting multiple items from each zone to minimize their steps? Or is each individual assigned to a zone and required to find all of the items in the zone for all orders being processed and bring them to a central area for packing?
And if you use the latter method, how do you insure that an order is packed as soon as all items are available? How do you simplify the packer’s task of finding the right item if items from multiple orders are continually poring in? How do you prevent the pickers from getting in each others way if they are converging from all over the warehouse to a small central location? How do you make sure the packers aren’t overwhelmed with too much product at once or underwhelmed with too little product at once? Those are the real questions, and the ones that went unanswered in this article in parallel picking in Supply & Demand Chain Executive.