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Archive for June, 2012

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Entering the Unknown?

Friday, June 29th, 2012

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Manager of Customer Services at SafeSourcing.

You may have heard people use the expression; “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Personally, I enjoy this saying a great deal. It is a simple truism. When applied to a procurement project, it can represent any number of unknowns or variables that have yet to be determined, but could affect your results.

The question is; how exactly do you find out what you don’t know? It may even be possible that you also don’t know the questions to which you need answers. Well, the good news is, there are some options. In no particular order, here are a few.

1. Internal Survey – Although you may not have a complete grasp of a certain category, others in your organization might. Using an internal survey tool, these associates can be polled for information on product or service details based on their current usages.
2. External Survey – In some cases, an internal survey may not provide enough detail. In that case, use an External Survey that asks the vendors directly what they are currently providing. This step might also be done concurrent with an Internal Survey to maximize the data available.
3. Historical Experience – Ask your strategic sourcing partner about their experience in this category. Any experiences they have had will lend direction to your project. Note: They can also propose the questions for your Internal and External Survey.

For what it’s worth, you will always not know what you don’t know. Hopefully, these suggestions will encourage you to find out what it is that you don’t know one project at a time. I find that knowing that there are options tends to make daunting tasks seem a little more manageable. 

If you’d like some help uncovering what you don’t know about your sourcing projects, contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Business Sourcing

Is your procurement team keeping up with the times?

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

Why not apply the same strategy that you would for your personal health when reviewing your first six month e-procurement results.

Listed below  are  12 questions that companies can ask themselves with the resulting answer going into either an assets or liabilities column in order to provide a semi-annual health check of your e-procurement progress or lack there of. Hopefully the former.

1. How many new suppliers were reviewed to provide new or existing products and services during the past six months?
2. How many of those suppliers were actually selected to provide new products or services during the past six months?
3. How much of your total spend was assigned to e-procurement tools such as RFI’s RFP’s and Reverse Auctions or RFQ’s.
4. How much of your private label spend was assigned to e-procurement tools such as RFI’s, RFP’s and Reverse Auctions or RFQ’s.
5. How much of your services spend was assigned to e-procurement tools such as RFI’s, RFP’s and Reverse Auctions or RFQ’s.
6. How much of your supplies spend was assigned to e-procurement tools such as RFI’s, RFP’s and Reverse Auctions or RFQ’s.
7. How many of your category managers and or buyers have on line accessible product and services specifications for each product or service they buy.
8. How much time is now being invested in gathering existing or new product specifications?
9. How much were your total cost of goods reduced during the last 6 months through the use of e-procurement tools.
10. How much was your gross margin improved by reduction in cost of goods during the last 6 months as a result of using e-procurement tools.
11. How much time do your category managers and suppliers spend doing supplier research weekly.
12. How many suppliers have been contributing greater than 75% of specific category volume for a period of greater than 5 years?
13. Of those suppliers, how many provide multiple products and or services to your company?
14. Are you satisfied with the product safety of all products from all sources?
15. How much was total company net profit improved by the use of e-procurement tools last six months?

It’s important to remember with six months left to go in the year that if a company assigns just ten percent (10%) of their cost of goods to e-procurement tools, net earnings can improve by up to 82% or more. You can not accomplish this without advanced tools that extend your productivity.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Strategy, Strategic Sourcing, Supply Chain Procurement

There are many challenges when sourcing freight lanes.

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Most people would guess that it is the cost of fuel, new regulations or the age of a providers fleet that keep adding costs for third party freight companies.

An area most buyers of these services might not think about is the cost of and need for qualified drivers. Most 3rd party freight companies are looking for drivers and there are not enough to go around.

Our economy rides on the wheels of the freight companies that ship our goods across the country, in fact all across North America.

So what happens when there is a shortage of drivers? It’s pretty simple, prices go up. Why? Because freight companies have to compete for qualified drivers and when there are not enough to go around, the price for these services go up. It’s a pretty simple supply and demand equation.

In an interesting and  related article in the June 25th edition of USA TODAY titled Trucker jobs go unfilled, leading to delayed deliveries by  Paul Davidson of USA TODAY indicates that the annual driver turnover rate at large carriers rose to a four-year high of 90%.

When you source your freight lanes make sure that you understand all of the dynamics that impact cost.

If you’d like help sourcing your freight lanes, contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Business Sourcing, Sourcing Strategy

If it ain’t broke……

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.

While eProcurement technologies aren’t new, it is surprising how new of a concept they can be to some very large companies.  As with any new technology and process, the perception of the change that must come as a result can be a bit skewed.  Good solutions will dictate how much change is necessary by evaluating how well things are working today.

In today’s blog, we will be looking a few situations and where new eProcurement strategies can fit to leverage what you are currently doing today.

Improving what works – Companies don’t get big by having broken processes in every aspect of their business, so it stands to reason that there will be many good ways of procuring goods and services that they are using today.  If, for example, there is a process in place for purchasing equipment for every regional office that works, what may be needed is a process that helps bring in some additional vendors, products and services to evaluate and then to provide the means by which the best value can be achieved for an award.  As indicated below, there will be processes that need more help, so for the ones that don’t, focus on broadening the selection pool and getting the best value so that decision can be realized as soon as possible. 

Managing what works – There are always spend categories where things are generally working, just in 100 different ways across all offices.  When you have 50 different locations all using different vendors, tools and processes a good first move can be to let the locations continue business as usual but bring in a vendor to help manage what all 50 locations are doing, monitoring the activity and controlling the expenses and savings.  A good eProcurememt solution will assist with getting the vendor pool to select from to handle the management realizing value immediately by assuring things run smootghly.

Consolidating what works – Sometimes organizations need more than someone to manage what they are currently doing; they need consolidation of those vendors in a way that leaves their processes in tact but begins to leverage the value that comes with more volume and smaller numbers of vendors to have to manage relationships with.  The important thing in projects like these is to understand the current landscape so that in consolidating what works, “what works” doesn’t get lost in the process.  This can be achieved with internal polls of the locations and external polls to the current vendors supporting the business today.  Once this information is captured the plan for consolidation becomes much clearer.

For more information about how we can assist with sourcing your needs without changing what works for your company, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  

We look forward to your comments.

Posted in E-procurement, E-procurement Solutions, E-procurement Tools, Sourcing Strategy, Strategic Sourcing

Here’s a repost that still has some legs.

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

I choose to post simply because I can
My wife seems to think it’s because I’m a concerned and caring man.
So why or when to post, just what is my deal
It could simply be that I just had a bad meal
A meal from a food source that was not really safe
That sickened me some
And just could not be traced
It’s origin cloudy I really get ticked
That many more people could also become sick
So I post a few comments on product safety and more
In the hopes that they become part of the cure
Whether near shoring or off shoring and from local suppliers too
We offer opinions hoping they’ll be helpful to you
It’s time that our supply chain start to get the game right
And that will only happen if buyers make the process more tight
With adherence to certifications and timely inspections
That are clearly executed against consistent directions
While we’re at it, it’s important to do and say what we mean
And while we tighten up our processes
Let’s try to keep them focused on becoming more green
With a supply chain that’s safer
And greener to boot
Our new posts can discuss how to reinforce doing both, while still saving you some loot!

We look forward to and appreciate your comments. However, there is no need for them to be poetic in nature.

Posted in Green eProcurement Practices, Product Procurement, Retail Supply Chain, Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products, Supply Chain Procurement

Retailers should have continuing success when re-running prior e-procurement events.

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

There is a proper way to insure the sustainability of your strategic sourcing or reverse auction events going forward.  Since you have already conducted or should have conducted your detailed discovery and analysis, a robust supplier database should permit you to do the following.

1. Conduct a detailed supplier discovery
     a. Rank suppliers by
        i. Size
        ii. Experience
        iii. References
        iv. Environmental certifications
        v. Safety Certifications
        vi. Coverage area
2. Develop a three year supplier game plan
     a. Develop a three year time line  for all categories
     b. Identify suppliers for each event over the three years
     c. Develop a three year supplier rotation schedule for those suppliers.
3. Role play internally  each year for a test category
     a. Ask the following questions
        i. Who will you invite and why
        ii. Keep in mind the unique benefits of distributors and manufacturers
        iii. Discuss award the business strategies
        iv. Review alternative scenarios
        v. Review impact on non awarded suppliers
        vi. Determine which suppliers will be invited back and why
        vii. Determine what new suppliers from your database search will be  invited next year.

If you’d like some help building this into a process that will work over and over again, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in E-supply Chain, Supply Chain Procurement

Should you join a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO)?

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

According to Wikipedia a group purchasing organization (or GPO) is an entity that is created to leverage the purchasing power of a group of businesses to obtain discounts from vendors based on the collective buying power of the GPO members.

When is a company a GPO and when are they something else? Many organizations take on procurement functionality based on the spend of their members. They can be industry wholesalers, share groups, consortiums, distributors and a variety of other types of organizations. They may take on all procurement opportunities or specific opportunities like energy. GPO’s can be vertically focused or horizontally focused. They can also be horizontally focused within an industry vertical. An example might be a wholesale grocer that is focused on a retail industry vertical like supermarkets.

The question is should you join one or many? Maybe you shouldn’t join any. The only way to answer the question is to understand your own organization in terms of its strengths and weaknesses relative to the products or services categories you hope to source. As an example; if you are just buying from a wholesalers price book, it’s a good bet you are not getting the best price. It’s also a good bet that other members of the same wholesaler are getting a better price and they may be smaller than you. However you may also have a huge energy spend and this is something that your product wholesaler can’t help you with. As such, there may be a specific GPO for energy that can offer some expertise.

This author believes that your best bet is to focus on a procurement company that is horizontally focused with specific expertise in a number of verticals such as health care, retail, distribution, financial services etc. I have often seen these companies significantly out perform GPO’s by a significant amount as the overall overlap of expertise across multiple industries suggests a level of creativity that GPO’s may not have.

Ultimately understanding what your company’s limitations are as well as the opportunities that are available to you is a first and important step. After that, it’s who can do the most for you with the least disruption across the broadest area of spend.

SafeSourcing is such a company. Please contact us if you would like further information on how to improve your bottom line in the present quarter risk free.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Product Procurement

Shipping Lanes and the Fuel-In/Fuel-Out Debate!

Monday, June 18th, 2012

Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing

Managing your freight/shipping lanes is a complex process.  There are so many factors that must be taken into account.  Even then, when you have gone through all of the analysis and created projection models and spreadsheets you are still left at the mercy of weather, sales increases and declines and, of course, any possible factor that could influence the price of oil.

Because this last item represents up to 35% of a carriers charge to you, it is one that many companies take very seriously and invest great amounts of time and money in order to help them control.  Some companies take the approach of locking a fuel rate into their cost for as long as they can to help protect against increases.  Many other companies have negotiated their base rates and keep the fluctuations of fuel separate, with controls placed around the formula used to calculate it. Today we will be looking at the pros and cons of both the Fuel-In and Fuel-Out methods.

Fuel-In – Fuel-In strategies are founded on having a final complete rate inclusive of fuel costs.  This is nice for companies who want a fuel cost method that is easy to manage, because the cost of each shipment for the negotiated period should always be the same.  Typically this method will either be re-negotiated at pre-fined intervals, or tied to an oil/fuel related index with language to cap how much the rate can increase or decrease.

While this strategy can be used to help protect a company during periods of time when fuel prices are rapidly increasing, it usually leads to higher overall rates for each negotiated period.  Without the flexibility to adjust with the average cost of fuel, vendors will generally error on the side that protects themselves and deliver higher than normal rates in their proposal.

Fuel-Out – Fuel-Out methods usually include a fuel surcharge that is based on some pre-defined fuel index such as the commonly used U.S. Department of Energy National Fuel Average price.  Using the agreed upon price, most formulas will subject a “trigger” amount which is the rate of fuel above which carriers begin to include the surcharge.  Typically this rate will be between $1.20 and $1.25 per gallon.  This amount is subtracted from the average fuel price and then divided by an agreed upon Miles Per Gallon rate (usually 5 or 6 MPG) which leaves the surcharge per mile charged.

Although this means that the price of shipments can fluctuate more often and that companies aren’t protected against a dramatic increase in fuel like the Fuel-In method, they will be able to take advantage of decreases in fuel that the method above doesn’t always allow.  The other advantage with this method is that it allows companies to get much more competitive base rates from carriers who know their fuel costs will be allowed to adjust the changing costs of fuel.

For more information about how we can assist with sourcing your freight lanes, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  

We look forward to your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Strategy

Are you running enough RFI’s? Are you running any?

Friday, June 15th, 2012

According to Wikipedia and others a Request for Information (RFI) is a standard business process whose purpose is to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers. Normally it follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes.

So a Request for Information (RFI) is primarily used to gather information to help companies make a decision on what steps to take next. RFI’s are therefore most often the first stage in the procurement process particularly with new sources of supply. They are used in combination with: Requests for Quote (RFQ), Requests for Tender (RFT), and Requests for Proposal (RFP). In addition to gathering basic information, an RFI is often used as a solicitation sent to a broad base of potential suppliers for the purpose of preparing a supplier’s thought process in preparing for a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Tender (RFT) in the government sector, or a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Much of the data required for an RFI is generally available and can be found on company websites, U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings for publicly traded companies in their Edgar system, industry guides from companies like Trade Dimensions, or from sources like Dun and Bradstreet.

The challenge for most companies is that they do not have the necessary resources to complete this research. Therefore providers of supplier data should be able to make this data available in templates that companies can begin with. Simple data should always be available in any database as to Company Name, Annual Sales, Product category expertise, contact information, e-procurement experience and product specifications. This data should be easily exportable to a variety of formats such as MSFT Excel.

A simple request of your e-procurement supplier should get you well on your way to completed RFI’s that lead to quality RFP’s and RFQ’s without spending a lot of your valuable time on basic research. If they do not, we’d be glad to hear from you.

If you’d like to learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

We look forward to and appreciate  your comments.

Posted in E-procurement, E-procurement Solutions

SQF; is it the panacea for food safety and food borne Illness mitigation?

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

According to Dictionary.com a panacea is a remedy for all disease or ills; a cure-all or an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties. Although this author does not believe it to be a panacea, SQF is certainly an important building block if not a corner stone of any global food safety program.

The SQF (Safe Quality Food) Program is a leading, global food safety and quality certification program and management system designed to meet the needs of buyers and suppliers worldwide. There are two sections of SQF. SQF 1000 is targeted at primary producers and SQF 2000 is targeted at manufacturers and distributors. More detailed inforamtion can be found at www.sqf.com. Schools are held regularly around the country for both groups and detailed information about these schools can also be found at www.fmi.org under the calendar section.

There are ten basic steps to implementing an SQF Program. These steps are taken from the SQF manual.

1. The Buyer requests the desired level of certification to be achieved by the supplier.  
2. The Supplier designates a staff member as its SQF Practitioner to lead development of its SQF System, or hires an external SQF Consultant licensed by The SQF Institute.
3. The SQF Practitioner is trained at a licensed SQF Training Center.
4. The SQF Practitioner conducts a gap analysis of the supplier’s current system.  
5. The Supplier selects an SQF licensed Certification Body to perform a certification audit.
6. A Certification Audit is conducted consisting of a document review and on-site audit.
7. An Auditor recommends certification if no critical or major non-conformities are found and the audit result indicates an acceptable rating.
8. The Certification Body Review Council makes the final decision and the SQF Certificate and audit report are issued. The SQF Certificate is valid for 12 months.
9. If critical or major non-conformities are found, the supplier takes corrective action, which is verified before certification is granted.
10. Re-certification audits are conducted annually and within 30 days of the scheduled audit date. Audit frequency can be either annual, semi annual or more frequent depending on the type of certificate issued and the risk level.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Strategy, Strategic Sourcing

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