This week examined Knowledge Based Sourcing, Booz Allen’s entrant into the Next Level Arena. Described as a competency consisting of a set of powerful techniques used to identify high impact value drivers that result in increased understanding and knowledge of ‘ideal’ cost structures that can be used to develop better relationships with suppliers, focused on reality based improvement plans, and gain an ongoing business advantage, KBS turns out to be a sourcing paradigm largely based on advanced cost modelling and associated analytical techniques.

Since advanced cost modelling is a solid foundation for both strategic sourcing decision optimization and spend analysis, KBS is a good foundation for any sourcing effort, but does it go far enough to truly be a next level supply management paradigm? Let’s look at some of the key tenets of the other entrants into the Arena.

• High Definition Sourcing (HDS)
  Category Excellence. Adoption. Stakeholder Partnership. Decision Monitoring. BI Focus.
• Value Focussed Supply (VFS)
  Working Capital Optimization. Revenue Enhancement. Corporate Reputation Protection. Increased Supplier/Customer/Stakeholder Loyalty. Strategic Advantage. Intellectual Capital. Sustainable Value Chain.
• Next Level Supply Management (NLSM)
  Leadership. Transformation. Corporate Finance Focus. Talent Management. Collaboration. Energy Management. Idealized Design. (Lean) Supplier Development. Complexity Reduction. Working Capital Management. Early Involvement.
• Next Practices (NP)
  Talent Management. Adoption. Execution. Implementation. Optimization. Utilization. Customer Value Focus. Risk Focus. Mind Share. Information. Alignment.
• Supply Management Transformation (SMT)
  Innovation.
• Supply Chain Leverage (SCL)
  Value Creation Framework. Market share. Diversification. Productivity. Tax Effectiveness. Demand Management. Lean.

Hmmm. While most of these start with a foundation of modelling and cost management, that’s as far as the similarity goes. In most of these models, modelling to understand current costs is simply the first step on the path to category excellence, revenue enhancement, working capital optimization, or customer value improvement. It is not an end in and of itself. Furthermore, most of these next generation methodologies start with TVM (Total Value Management), realizing that TCO doesn’t go far enough for most categories — and KBS seems quite content with TCO.

Verdict? While KBS might last a few rounds against SMT, against HDS, VFS, NLSM, NP, and SCL, it wouldn’t last three rounds before getting KO’d. I guess it’s time for Booz Allen to update their model!

Monday’s post introduced us to Knowledge Based Sourcing (KBS), Booz Allen’s entrance to the Next Generation Supply Management Arena. Tuesday’s post introduced us to the philosophy of the KBS approach that is focussed on gaining an increased understanding and knowledge of ‘ideal’ cost structures that can be used to develop better relationships with suppliers, focused on reality based improvement plans, to gain an ongoing business advantage. This philosophy revolves around a four-step continuous improvement cycle that starts, and ends, with Cost Model Generation. Yesterday’s post described the cost modelling process in detail. Today’s post will conclude our series on Knowledge Based Sourcing by describing some of the focus areas of Knowledge Based Sourcing.

As per Booz Allen’s recent article in SIG on “Achieving Greater Impact Through Advanced Sourcing Approaches”, Knowledge Based Sourcing is focussed on developing a deep contextual and analytical understanding of several critical areas associated with the spend category, including:

• Supply market economics and cost drivers,
• Drivers of price in the supply market (beyond costs),
• Variation in supplier capabilities and cost structure (and its drivers),
• Spend category economics, including internal usage economics as well as cost/performance trade-offs, and
• Spend category impact on broader business objectives.

An understanding of these areas is critical because:

• without an understanding of cost drivers, the true sources of cost can never be attacked,
• without an understanding of costs beyond raw materials, processes can never be improved,
• without an understanding of variation in supplier capabilities, it will be difficult to determine which suppliers are high performers and which suppliers are low performers,
• each spend category has its own distinct cost drivers, and
• controlling cost is only one component of the overall value equation — and the customer wants value.

Furthermore, the most appropriate spend categories for KBS are those with:

• highly volatile market prices,
• a large number of component inputs,
• highly variable product specifications,
• large fixed costs in production process,
• scale and utilization cost sensitivity, and/or
• complex multi-tiered supply chains.

These categories are typically tackled with:

• Industry value chain analysis,
• Analysis of supply-demand dynamics,
• Production process mapping,
• Bottom up cost build up — by component, plant or supplier,
• Parametric modelling and regression analysis,
• Comparative factor cost analysis across suppliers and locations,
• Analysis of scale and utilization impact on costs, and
• other advanced analytical techniques.

And the end result is that insights beyond price materialize, including:

• the identification of cost-advantaged suppliers,
• the identification of appropriate order quantities,
• the identification of trade-offs between cost and product performance, and
• improved transparency of underlying cost drivers that drive “win-win” outcomes.

And in the end, not only does the Supply Management organization get price under control, but it is better able to support strategic business objectives which gives it stronger positioning and credibility within the organization as a whole.

Monday’s post introduced us to Knowledge Based Sourcing (KBS), Booz Allen’s entrance to the Next Generation Supply Management Arena. Yesterday’s post introduced us to the philosophy of the KBS approach that is focussed on gaining an increased understanding and knowledge of ‘ideal’ cost structures that can be used to develop better relationships with suppliers, focused on reality based improvement plans, to gain an ongoing business advantage. This philosophy revolved around a four-step continuous improvement cycle that started, and ended, with Cost Model Generation.

Today’s post is going to drive into the five-step process that is used to generate the cost models that drive Knowledge Based Sourcing.

1. Engage Suppliers
   Introduce them to the KBS methodology that will be used to drive the supply management process going forward. Explain the benefits to both sides and review the promises that KBS makes to the supply base. Make sure they know that the goal is to reduce underlying cost (driver)s, not their profit, and provide continual advantages to all parties going forward.
2. Collect Cost Information
   Start with conference calls to validate cost component templates and starting costs. Follow-up with on-site visits to validate general ledger information and confirm cost information with controller/CFO.
3. Develop Starting Cost Models
   Detail component raw materials and processes required to build the product from the component level upward. Then identify a best-in-class cost structure and operational model based on market research. Finally, evaluate impact of cost drivers and fine-tune the model appropriately.
4. Calibrate Cost Models
   Test the sensitivity of critical assumptions, internal demand scenarios, and cost models against current products. Include other TCO/TVM parameters as appropriate (to account for defects, brand power, etc.) and fine-tune the model(s) as appropriate.
5. Communicate Gaps
   For each supplier, provide cost element performance breakdown detail, focussing on those areas where the supplier is weakest. Classify the savings opportunity based on projected spend/volume, and then work with the supplier(s) to create collaborative action plans to close the gap.

Once the gaps are identified, the Supply Management department works with the supplier to reduce costs. This often involves the identification of appropriate lean manufacturing techniques to decrease setup time, reduce process steps, reduce delays between process steps, reduce variation, reduce manufacturing footprint, and reduce lead-time while increasing quality and reliability (as this decreases defect rates and return costs).

It’s a solid process, and correctly applied, will yield solid results.

Yesterday’s post introduced us to Knowledge Based Sourcing, the Next Level Supply Management proposal put forward by Booz Allen as its entry into the Next Level Ring. Described as a competency consisting of a set of powerful techniques used to identify high impact value drivers that result in increased understanding and knowledge of ‘ideal’ cost structures that can be used to develop better relationships with suppliers, focused on reality based improvement plans, and gain an ongoing business advantage, Knowledge Based Sourcing (KBS) is defined by its characteristics, which were reviewed in detail in yesterday’s post.

Today’s post is going to discuss the basic philosophy of Knowledge-Based Sourcing, which is a simple, four-step continuous improvement cycle:

• Cost Model Generation
  a detailed cost model that captures the majority of component costs, including all of the cost drivers
• Gap Identification
  which identifies where costs are higher than they should be based on raw material costs, realistic production costs, and market averages
• Gap Closure Plan
  which outlines a plan to attack and reduce costs that are too high
• Standard Cost Revision
  which updates the costs in the cost model to current costs and updates the baseline according to new information

This continuous improvement cycle incorporates the following aligned behaviours:

• cost standards for major processes based on physical realities and best-in-class data points
  as a goal towards reducing costs below known minimums for a given process with defined equipment and resources is not just unrealistic, but stupid
• best-in-class performance compared with known (supplier) costs
  as exceeding best-in-class cost performance will generally not be possible unless the process is changed
• dialog around cost improvement ideas relative to best-in-class pricing
  as many heads are better than one
• agreement on a realistic improvement plan
  as all parties need to be on-board for success
• supply management as a learning opportunity

that improves based upon a better understanding of cost, best-in-class performance, and past improvements

And, most important, promises the suppliers that:

• no requests will be made to undercut cost structures
  as this is unfair
• a fair profit and SG&A allowance will be incorporated into target cost models
  as all supply chain partners need to profit
• comparisons will only be made with peer-group suppliers using real, validated data
  as other comparisons are invalid
• detailed feedback will be provided on cost elements that need to be improved
  as improvement does not happen in a vaccum
• collaboration on waste removal will occur
  as waste is quickly becoming one of the most significant contributions to unnecessary costs (thanks to rising raw material, power, and water costs)
• business will be rewarded to those that open their books and demonstrate best-in-class costs
  as the goal of KBS is to collaborate on cost improvement
• information will be protected as confidential
  as it’s only fair
• knowledge gained can be applied to other business
  as this is a great incentive for collaboration and improvement

It’s a good philsophy, and a good foundation for improving supply chain relations. Tomorrow’s post will dive into the cost modelling process.

BravoSolution. CAPS. Greybeard Advisors. The MPower Group. Purchasing Practice. Tompkins Associates. Sourcing Innovation. And now Booz Allen. The Next Generation Sourcing Ring is staring to get a little crowded with combatants each offering their own take on “Next Generation” Supply Management. But that’s a good thing. Until recently, there weren’t even enough combatants to have a tag-team match!

So what is Booz Allen bringing to the Next Generation Sourcing Rumble? A competency consisting of a set of powerful techniques used to identify high impact value drivers that result in increased understanding and knowledge of ‘ideal’ cost structures that can be used to develop better relationships with suppliers, focused on reality based improvement plans, and gain an ongoing business advantage. This is a good goal.

In addition, Booz Allen claims that this approach is fundamentally different from traditional “market-based” sourcing approaches that are focused on embracing supply markets’ competitive context and/or obtaining the best competitive outcome possible, primarily through pricing. According to Booz Allen, its “Knowledge Based Sourcing” (KBS) approach is predicated on a deep understanding of cost drivers, the supply market, and spend category context. This is a good foundation. After all, it’s not spend that matters, but the underlying cost. Shaving 10% off the top is dismal if the organization is overpaying by 40%. And telling your team to save 10% again this year when underlying costs have gone up 40% and the production cost is now 10% more than what you are paying is foolish.

So how does Booz Allen define KBS? By its characteristics. According to Booz Allen, Knowledge Based Sourcing:

• uses the supply base as a key competitive advantage
  (presumably) because this enables long-term success through (financial) supplier stability instead of unstable short-term gains from supply base exploitation
• continuously improves to eliminate supply chain waste
  because raw material and environmental costs (associated with water and power) are going through the roof and waste is costly
• integrates (internal & external) relationships
  because this leads to collaboration, which in turn leads to innovation, that is not possible with combative arms-length relationships
• shares knowledge
  because all partners need to profit in a successful supply chain
• sets and meets targeted costs with supply partners
  as success relies on continual cost control and cost reduction
• is improvement focussed
  as an organization that stands still will soon be over-taken by the competition
• ensures suppliers are at an advantage over market
  as this is the foundation for using the supply base as a key competitive advantage
• continually drives best practices through the supply base
  to ensure that all supply chain partners improve in lock step
• is driven by knowledgeable procurement professionals
  as talent is the ultimate key to success
• aligns suppliers with customer success
  as Supply Management must enable its customers to succeed if it is to succeed

It’s a good definition for Knowledge Based Sourcing (KBS) and a solid entry into the Next Level Ring. Now, if only we could get the combatants to agree on a name. So far we have “High Definition Sourcing”, “VFS” (Value Focussed Supply), “Next Level Supply Management”, “Next Practices”, “Supply Management Transformation”, “Supply Chain Leverage”, “Next Generation Supply Management”, and “Knowledge Based Sourcing”. But the foundations of each message appear to be the same — in order to continue to extract value from supply management, it needs to be taken to the next level. A next level that is knowledge-based, analytics driven, and result-focussed.

So who’s going to throw their hat in the ring next? Hard to say. For now, we’ll explore Knowledge Based Sourcing further over the next few days.