The Supply Chain Notebook

I’ve looked far and wide but I’ve never found a perfect supplier. Sure, I’ve worked with some good ones….those that do their best to deliver defect free materials and services, on time, and at a reasonable cost. Seems like an easy task. Not really.

With many of those ‘green shoots’ in the economic recovery turning into small gardens, suppliers coming out of a period of poor revenue and depressed margins may try to spring a price increase on unsuspecting customers. Hold the line! ...click on the title to read more

Who’s to blame if your supply chain falters?

As an operations management professor, I am always asking my graduate students a lot about their own companies and sometimes I am disappointed with the answers I get. 

Prudent purchasing decisions have to be made with the economy in mind and buyers of chicken wings are experiencing this first hand. 

Anyone who rode the «tube» in London would certainly recognize this phrase. You have to mind the gap between the station platform and the metro wagon when entering or exiting the train in order to avoid falling in between. We can easily use the same phrase when it comes to sourcing, selecting suppliers and buying goods from overseas companies. Why? Because there is a huge gap of supplier performance data for companies overseas that no technology can bridge today. The problem is especially acute when we are talking about small and medium size companies that cannot afford spending countless dollars on supplier selection but are faced with the tough realities of dwindling customer demand and the push to reduce prices.