Make sure you understand all of the terms associated with off shore sourcing before you jump in. Sourcing products from off shore markets requires careful consideration of literally dozens of shipping terms and conditions.

As companies grow, the allure of sourcing lower cost products from off shore markets looks attractive. Mistakes in understanding the complex import/expert terms and conditions can cost you money, time or both.

Many safeguards are in place to insure that unnecessary damages do not occur to the local markets or workforces as a result of product imports.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) permits two forms of multilateral safeguards: (a) a country’s right to impose temporary import controls or other trade restrictions to prevent commercial injury to domestic industry, and (b) the corresponding right of exporters not to be deprived arbitrarily of access to markets. Article XIX of the GATT permits a country whose domestic industries or workers are adversely affected by increased imports to withdraw or modify concessions the country had earlier granted, to impose, for a limited period, new import restrictions if the country can establish that a product is “being imported in such increased quantities as to cause or threaten serious injury to domestic producers,” and to keep such restrictions in effect for a such time as may be necessary to prevent or remedy such injury.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

If you watch golf, go to football games, soccer games, play miniature golf, play tennis or even just go to the park on the weekend to walk your pet the use of artificial turf contuse to grow.

There are any numbers of companies that sell artificial turf and there are many businesses and consumers that buy it. In Arizona, we see it a lot on backyard putting greens and in some cases back yards period made from the product. At this authors home we never installed any in as our best friend Riley told us it got to hot for him to sit on and was not fun to do other things on as well. So we went for the real deal. As an environmentally conscious consumer and citizen, we probably use a lot more water as a result which is a real problem in Arizona.

Relative to those communities, school districts and other organizations that purchase these types of product, there was an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times on August 15th by Marc Fisher titled ?AstroTurf will get the lead out?. This author has posted on this subject before and would encourage you to read the article which went on to say that the manufacturer settled an environmental lawsuit with the State of California over lead used to keep the artificial turf green. AstroTurf and other turf-makers insist their product is safe in California.

Please remember that due diligence is required in the sourcing of all products. Accurate product specifications are just the starting point. Ask you solutions provider if they can assist you in developing these specifications or if they have any on file that you can review.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

The primary reason is that they have something to say. Some may say it better than others. Some may want to show how smart they are. The best posts however come from those few that really care and are passionate about the subject matter they choose to post about.

This author tends to think of the large Supply Chain blog sphere we are part of as a round table discussion that everyone can attend whenever they want to at no cost. That’s free education for those that choose to use it. The good news is that the more individuals that post on a subject the more exposure the subject matter gets and the greater the opportunity for an ?Oh My Moment? to occur. Quite often, blogs are subsets of a broader subject area. By example, the broad subject area of “Supply Chain” might include posts that cover any of the following areas.

1. Supply Chain Management
2. Warehouse Management
3. Procurement
4. Logistics
5. Manufacturing
6. Global Trade
7. Software Providers
8. Vendor Management
9. Supplier Management
10. Value Chain
11. Inventory Management
12. Distribution
13. Demand Planning
14. Materials Management
15. Raw Materials

Obviously, each of the above subsets of the broader subject of Supply Chain also has many potential subsets that can also be posted about. What normally happens is that an author chooses to post about areas that they are passionate about. For this author some but certainly not all of those areas might include.

1. Environmental Best Practices
2. Product Safety and Standards
3. Supply Chain Traceability
4. Food safety and Food Borne Illnesses
5. e- Negotiation
6. Supplier Data Availability
7. Procurement Professional Collaboration Points
8. Procurement Content Access
9. Corporate Social Responsibility
10. Retail Procurement
11. Profit improvement through Improved Procurement Practices

This author?s passion also leads to offering the following free products for procurement professionals on our website.

1. SourceBook? – A Procurement Professionals Social Community
2. A Daily Sourcing Blog
3. A Sourcing Wiki
4. Daily Safety Alert links
5. Product Specification Template Library
6. SafeSourceIt? Global Supplier Database and Query Tool

At SafeSourcing we also offer for sale best in class on demand hosted e-negotiation tools and related services while also averaging 5 posts per week for the last 15 months. At Safesourcing we are passionate about the supply chain and respect all those that share our passion.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

It?s know surprise to anyone reading this post that retail supply chain jobs have never been the most glamorous or sought after jobs. As such access to sources of accurate information is criticle. The SafeSourcing Wiki is just such a source.

The reality is that even though these jobs lack glamour, they are some of the most complex and at times tedious of jobs. To often the research associated with these jobs is left to interns, new hires, internal transferees and other folks that quite frankly would like to make their mark and move on rather than continue to research supply chain issues and what seems as strange terminology. So, where do these associates turn for that inforamtion?

One place would be on line information such as a wiki. The obvious next question is just what is a WIKI? And, why the need for the SafeSourcing Wiki?

According to the king of all wikis, Wikipedia; a wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. For example, the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and for knowledge management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work”.

“Wiki? is a reduplication of “wiki”, a Hawaiian word for “fast”. It has been suggested that “wiki” means “What I Know Is”.

So, what is a SafeSourcing Wiki? Since SafeSourcing is a company dedicated to retail e-procurement that is safety in the supply chain and to environmental consciousness, it makes sense that the SafeSourcing Wiki would be a specialized wiki ( in this case retail e-procurement) that concentrates at a minimum on any or all of the following.

1. Retail procurement terms and links.
2. Safety standards and definitions and links.
3. Environmental certifications and definitions and links.
4. Educational content for procurement and supply chain professionals.
5. Procurement templates for commonly sourced products and services.

The nice thing about wikis is that the definitions are not static. Authorized users can add to definitions or add definitions and terms as well as rate the site. In this way a body of work can grow from the contribution of all users and help to provide a reliable source of data for professionals in a specialized field.

Please feel free to visit the safesourcing wiki regularly and offer your comments, terms, definitions and suggestions. This section of the SafeSourcing website is free tool, and it is for your use as a procurement and supply chain professional, the most difficult job in retail.

We appreciate and look forward to your opinions.

Of course I?m talking about COST SAVINGS opportunities through the use of e-negotiation tools. Why do companies fight this so?

I have met with many retailers and rolled out examples that reflect savings driven by recent e-negotiations by other retailers with a similar format and located in the same geography. Many of these examples are less than twenty four hours old. As real as these results are, it is still difficult for the retailer to pull the trigger and give a new process a try. This is even true for hosted full service events, where there is little for the retailer to do. We just seem to get in our own way sometimes because we have too many other important things to do.

In this case let?s assume that the companies CEO is in the meeting and directs that he or she would like the cost of goods reduced ASAP. The project is then assigned to the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain or Chief Logistics Officer or Chief Procurement Officer or some other senior executive. This is then further assigned to the Vice President of Procurement who in turn assigns it to some director. The director convenes meetings of the buyers or category managers responsible for a variety of category spend. Now the excuses begin.

1. We can?t damage our relationship with our suppliers.
2. We get the best price in the industry right now.
3. These guys don?t know what they are talking about.
4. Don?t we have a tool that does this in our ERP system?
5. We?ll sacrifice quality.

I could go on an on with more excuses or objections, but I think most of you get my drift. Everyone has one. Have you ever heard the quote that ?A camel is a horse created by committee?? Well, here we are in the stable again.

If we go back to the CEO and explain what the situation is, one is likely to get a reply that says as the Nike commercial does; JUST DO IT! Unfortunately that needs to be followed by; DO IT KNOW! And, I?ll be watching.

From start to finish, the e-negotiation process should take no more than two weeks to complete. This includes the entire process including and RFI if necessary from the day a retailer says go to the award of business. With that said, there are several requirements necessary to accomplish this. These eliminate the worry and mitigate the risk. They are also easy if you choose the right provider.

1. A robust supplier database.
2. A robust event specification library.
3. An intuitive set of tools for configuring the R?s.
4. Automated reporting tools that provide immediate result details.

Stop the excuses. If you are really interested in improving your bottom line now, you are less than two weeks away from immediate results. As they say at NIKE. Just do it!

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

If you have not been following recent blog posts at Sourcing Innovation.com, you should have been. In this case the posts relative to the number of corporate Chiefs, the doctor is right on.

In the Doctors recent post CUCKOO, he calls attention to the endless and in many cases meaningless introduction of new “C” level positions in today’s business world. When this author first began my career, what was typical of most corporations was the Chief Executive Office, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Information Officer. That was about it. These positions in most cases also held seats on the board or directors which added a sense of aura to the title and also signified to the rest of the business world the level of importance placed on this position by the Board. Further elegance might be added to the title of CEO when in some cases the job also carries the title of Chairman of the Board.

Historically, if you did not carry one of the above titles, but reported to one, your title might be that of vice president, senior vice president and sometimes executive vice president. This indicated that your role was one of significance and reported to a board level position.

So, why do we need all of these other titles and layers of management? This author is not quite sure. To me it means the buck stops in to many places instead of as the old saying goes, “The Buck Stops Here”.

According to Wikipedia a chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executive) or administrators in charge of total management. So obviously the buck stops here. Woops, let’s look a little further.

According to Wikipedia there is also a chief operating officer or chief operations officer (COO) which is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation and for operations management. So, why no CEO? Maybe we should add the title of President to the COO job. If the CEO is not really running the company on a daily basis and is really responsible for the strategy and direction of the company, why not name the CEO the Chief Strategy Officer. Woops, there we go again, another title.

If you’re not confused by now, please offer some comments because most associates, shareholders and other stakeholders are. I’m sorry I never got to the Chef part of this post, but Executive Chef, Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine and other titles are just part of the same problem.

We certainly look forward to and appreciate your comments.

If you have not been following recent blog posts at Sourcing Innovation.com, you should have been. In this case the posts relative to the number of corporate Chiefs, the doctor is right on.

In the Doctors recent post CUCKOO, he calls attention to the endless and in many cases meaningless introduction of new ?C? level positions in today?s business world. When this author first began my career, what was typical of most corporations was the Chief Executive Office, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Information Officer. That was about it. These positions in most cases also held seats on the board or directors which added a sense of aura to the title and also signified to the rest of the business world the level of importance placed on this position by the Board. Further elegance might be added to the title of CEO when in some cases the job also carries the title of Chairman of the Board.

Historically, if you did not carry one of the above titles, but reported to one, your title might be that of vice president, senior vice president and sometimes executive vice president. This indicated that your role was one of significance and reported to a board level position.

So, why do we need all of these other titles and layers of management? This author is not quite sure. To me it means the buck stops in to many places instead of as the old saying goes, ?The Buck Stops Here?.

According to Wikipedia a chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executive) or administrators in charge of total management. So obviously the buck stops here. Woops, let?s look a little further.

According to Wikipedia there is also a chief operating officer or chief operations officer (COO) which is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation and for operations management. So, why no CEO? Maybe we should add the title of President to the COO job. If the CEO is not really running the company on a daily basis and is really responsible for the strategy and direction of the company, why not name the CEO the Chief Strategy Officer. Woops, there we go again, another title.

If you?re not confused by now, please offer some comments because most associates, shareholders and other stakeholders are. I?m sorry I never got to the Chef part of this post, but Executive Chef, Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine and other titles are just part of the same problem.

We certainly look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Throughout history, battles and wars have been won and lost based upon the strength of ones supply chain. How strong is yours?

It could be said that much of today?s thought relative to supply chain management is rooted in the history of human expansion. In fact there are many examples of how expansion which many times happened or was planned in conjunction with the conquest of others was either successful or failed based on the ability to keep supplies flowing to the expansionists or armies associated with them. If you are a growing retailer with your own expansion plans some careful thought as to your supply chain and the necessary contingencies may be your most important activity

According to Wikipedia in military science, maintaining one’s supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy is a crucial?some would say the most crucial?element of military strategy, since an armed force without resources and transportation is defenseless.

Obviously this takes us back to our opening question; are you winning the supply chain battle? What would you do today if one or more of your current suppliers were to go out of business or enter bankruptcy (a real possibility)? Have you made plans as to how your company would replace the goods or services provided by these suppliers?

A recent example that may come to mind happened during the recent H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak first detected in the United States during April of 2009? Drug store chains during that time of panic became the first stop for much of the population in search surgical masks or other anti bacterial supplies. Many retailers ran out of stock and many suppliers were unable to meet the increased demand. Most retailers were not sure where else to turn for additional supply based on the increased demand. The trickle down effect of this could have gone on an on well beyond the impact of surgical masks or anti bacterial product shortages.

The obvious follow on question is which back orders would suppliers fill first and where would your consumers go to get them. The answer is probably not at your stores. The obvious reason is because hospitals, governments and large retail companies like Wal-Mart buy more of these products than you do.

Is winning the supply chain battle important? You bet it is! Do you have the right tools in place? This author believes the answer is absolutely not.

Ask your solution providers how they would help you in a situation like this.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments.

Massachusetts has become the latest state to issue a public health advisory on BPA. Both Connecticut and Minnesota have laws on the books that take affect in 2011. At this rate we might catch up with Canada which banned baby bottles with BPA in 2008 sometime mid century.

This author has posted on the subject of BPA a number of times. BPA is used as a liner in some food and beverage cans to prevent spoilage. It is used in a variety of other consumer products to enhance the structural integrity of plastic containers. Alternatives to plastic containers that have BPA as a component are available, and some are made by the same companies that produce products containing BPA. So, I must ask this again. Why is the United Sates taking so long to ban the use of this product?

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is issuing a public health advisory for consumers concerning bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is present in baby products, including baby bottles and some infant formula. A number of studies in laboratory animals have raised concerns about potential health effects during fetal development and among nursing or formula-fed children who may be exposed to BPA. These effects include but are not limited to: changes in the infant?s developing nervous system, such as thyroid function and brain growth; changes in behavioral development, such as hyperactivity; and changes in the normal development of the prostate gland.

Please share your opinion if you care to.

Is having access to new sources of supply from off shore markets through e-negotiation tools important to your company?

Sourcing from China and other Pacific Rim companies can provide your company with unprecedented access to a new supply base. This may emerge as a critical step in maintaining and lowering your costs in a challenging global economy. But, and it is a big but. You have to be careful

There are number important questions that you must ask of your e-negotiation solutions provider that could include but are certainly not limited to the following. These questions will help to mitigate the risks that are commonly associated with the use of long distance global supply chains.
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1. Does your provider have experienced customer service representatives who have procurement expertise in hosted e-negotiation events?
2. Does your provider have a well documented e-negotiation strategy?
3. Do the suppliers in your provider?s database have a clear understanding of the products and or services being purchased?
4. Are your provider?s tools flexible enough to support a variety e-negotiation event types.
5. Does your provider offer a robust specification library with hundreds of category templates for all types of reverse auctions?
6. Does your provider conduct ongoing supplier development including audits and local training
7. Does your provider offer safety certification through a vetted RFI compliance process?
8. Does your provider test suppliers for their environmental and product safety certification adherence?
9. Does your solutions provider offer a social environment that supports open communications for agents, buyers and suppliers to regularly collaborate with one another on complex supply chain issues?

The SafeSourcing SafeSourceIt? Global Supplier Database contains over 300,000 new sources of supply from countries like Japan, China and Korea.

As always, we look forward to and appreciate your comments.