Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Technology for Procurement

ISM may be over, but that doesn’t mean that conference season is. There are still lots of events to come. One event in particular that I am going to point out is EyeForProcurement’s Technology for Procurement event coming up next month – June 19-20 at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel in San Francisco.

In the spirit of EyeForTransport events, they are focussed on bringing together a wide range of leading industry practitioners and executives to share their stories, tactics, and strategies for success – something every practitioner can benefit from. Furthermore, their events are usually in the “decent size range” – not so many attendees that you feel lost but not so few that you feel that it was not a good use of your time. (It’s one of the few events in the first half of this year that I’m actually hoping to make. I was hoping to make Synergy, but I needed to be somewhere else at the time.)

Product Innovation Summit later this month. And if you like technology, and are an Aberdeen sponsor or subscriber, you might also want to consider attending Aberdeen’s

The Top Three XI: Dale Earnhardt

Today I’m thrilled to bring you a guest post from The Blogging Thunder From Down Under. It’s been a while since the MacQuarie Bank let him out of the vault, so I hope you enjoy Doug Hudgeon’s guest post – as it might be a while before they let him out of the vault again.

Aaah, the number three. Is there another number so pregnant with metaphor and meaning? Tripartite systems have been in vogue for centuries with everyone from Euclid (triangle) to the Christian God (Trinity) to Adam Smith (Rents, Wages and Stock Profits) speaking in threes. Given our apparently innate tendency towards triposis, Michael has chosen wisely his topic of the Top 3. I associate “Top 3” with Dale Earnhardt, who dominated the NASCAR speedways driving car number 3 – he was undoubtedly, the Top 3 of his era. And from there, I am reminded of a terrific article by David Ronfeldt, “Social Science at 190 MPH on NASCARs Biggest Speedways” on FirstMonday.org.

The article discusses the conditions under which competitors cooperate on the NASCAR circuit (cars drafting in a line travel faster) and the conditions under which they compete (a driver can ‘defect’ from the car in front by pulling aside from the lead car’s bumper thus trapping the lead car outside the drafting line causing the car to lose as many places as there are cars in the line; whilst running the risk that the third car may follow the first thus leaving the ‘defector’ hung out to dry).

The article concludes that the best strategy is tit-for-tat, cooperating with those who cooperate with you and punishing those who leave you hung out to dry. This allows you to develop allegiances with ‘friends’ and discourages your friends from defecting. The drivers viewed as most capable of leading others to the front will develop the most friends – success breeds success.

There’s lessons in this for all of us.

ISM is Over …

And even if I didn’t know the start and end dates, such dates are easily deducible by recent blog activity.  On the day ISM started, daily hits dropped by about a third.  Now that ISM has been over for a day, hits are up.  Way up – by over 50% relative to the norm as the hordes of practitioners lost in the glaring lights of Vegas find their way back onto the internet and back to their favorite blogs.  But I am curious – did any other bloggers notice such a significant effect on blog hits from this event?  And has any other event had such a significant effect on sourcing and procurement blog readership?

Forsooth the (e-Sourcing) Wiki

Don’t forsake the Wiki just because it’s new. It might not contain entries on everything you want to read about yet, but that’s the beauty of the Wiki, you can help create those entries. And it is growing in content almost weekly now.

So far, the e-Sourcing Wiki [WayBackMachine] has entries on:

  • Strategic e-Sourcing Best Practices
    On-Demand / SaaS Application Platforms
    Strategic Sourcing Success Factors
    Spend Analysis and Opportunity Assessment
    Next Generation Sourcing
    Cost Reduction and Avoidance
    Center Led Purchasing
    Supplier Performance Management
    Demand Driven Supply
    Six Sigma

With entries on the following topics (and more) still to come:

  • e-RFx & Supplier Management
  • Next Generation e-Auctions
  • Sourcing Decision Optimization
  • Contract Management and Compliance
  • Sourcing Process Automation
  • Low Cost Country Sourcing
  • Procurement Outsourcing
  • An e-Procurement Primer
  • Supplier Risk Management
  • Sourcing Process Automation

And I’m sure more will come when it starts to catch on. So be sure to check it out again, and to keep doing so regularly.

PLM for Trends Base Industries

Although not a common subject on my blog, I am a big believer in Product Life-cycle Management, PLM, solutions as they can greatly simplify the development, management, sale, maintenance, and phase-out of a product in a large organization. To this end, PTC has released a short white paper entitled “PLM: An Imperative for Keeping Pace with a Trend-Based Industry” that presents some good arguments for such systems that I am going to repeat here, despite the fact it was obviously written to sell PTC’s solution(s) to apparel and related industries.

A good PLM system will provide:

  • complete process visibility compared to the limited process visibility that is the norm without a solution
  • a centralized, usually web-based, point of control compared to a lack of control point without a solution
  • one version of the product status and truth
  • workflow management
  • unparalleled control over the product life-cycle
  • an integration point for the various systems used in the various stages of product design, development, and merchandising

Another interesting point made by the article is that research, including research by KSA, points to reductions in development cycle time by as much as 20% to 50% when PLM technology is employed. In fast moving industries, such as apparel and electronics, where delay equals value, and subsequently revenue, reduction, this benefit of PLM alone should make the identification and adoption of an appropriate solution a priority.

Furthermore, PLM solutions allow sourcing and procurement managers to be involved in the development process from day one. They can analyze suggested materials and processes, determine whether or not they are cost effective, and suggest alternate materials and processes that are likely to produce the same quality at a low cost and, thus, a higher value point to the organization. Considering that up to 80% of a product’s cost can be locked in during the design phase, this benefit alone can often cover the cost of implementing an appropriate PLM system.