Archive for the ‘Retail Supply Chain’ Category

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Safety and Environmental certifications are not just about food and food born illness protection.

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Many times the ideas for my blog posts come from conversations with customers. Often times those thoughts make it into our product development plans. In fact listening to our customers is one of our most important jobs.

During a visit with a customer several months ago, the head of procurement complimented me on our companies efforts related to food safety and in particular commented on the 27 safety certifications we hold our 380,000 global suppliers accountable to in our SafeSourceIt™ Supplier Database. He followed that with the statement that since they did not sell fresh foods, that area of our business did not apply to them.

This particular retail customer does sell food products, cosmetics, private label bottled water and also bags the products they sell to their customers in plastic bags. I think most of you can see where I’m going with this. Plastic bags are a growing area concern for many areas of the country and in fact outlawed in an ever increasing number of areas due to their negative environmental impact. Food packaging can contain BPA. Dog food has contained products such as melamine. Toys have been found to contain lead.

So, let’s see that’s clothing, packaged foods, pet food, toys and beverages. I guess we have to be careful with all of the products we buy. Suppliers need to be held accountable to a variety of standards and certifications while also providing traceability beyond the one forward and one back standard supported in the industry today.

E- procurement solutions  providers need to be prepared to discuss how they intend to accomplish this for their customers in order to limit end user consumer risk, but also limit risk associated with litigation and other recall related costs that have a direct impact on company profit.

At SafeSourcing, all of our associates support our R4 program of Recycle, Reuse, Replace and Reduce and will be glad to have a detailed discussion relative to product safety and environmental impact and how our tools proactively address these opportunities.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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How safe is your/our supply chain? Help keep us all safe please.

Monday, November 1st, 2010

The specific question is how safe is your supply chain. How safe is it when transporting r products to your stores from warehouses all over the country and in fact all over the globe. Are there enough checks and balances in place to insure that the only products on a boat, train, truck or jet are the products that should be there?

The recent threats from Yemen should make all supply chain logistics providers ask the same questions every time something ships relative to their own and 3rd party logistics providers they may provide these shipping and delivery services. Unfortunately most companies will not have an answer readily available on this subject. In fact most companies will tell you when they order something how soon they would like to receive it and where but will never ask how the product will get there and by whom.

It?s crazy to think that we don?t know what?s on a plane until four hours before it gets to the U.S. This according to an article in the Arizona Republic titled Yemeni arrested in mailing of powerful bombs by Eileen Sullivan and Ahmed Al-Haj of the Associated Press. We have to do better. The terrorist never rest and we must remain diligent. So think about where you products come from and how they get from their point of origin to your stores. This is part of having a traceable supply chain but in this case we need to know what is shipping, when it?s shipping and who has access to to it during the entire process.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Is comparative advantage important to your procurement practices?

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Comparative advantage is a theory that advances that in a free marketplace, each entity or country such as the EU or NAFTA or trading countries will ultimately specialize in activities where it has comparative advantage. Examples of such might be technology, natural resources,?? local workers skill sets, agricultural advantages, transportation benefits etc.

Sometimes countries create trade agreements that eliminate the comparative advantage they each may have in favor of benefits that both or multiple countries derive from the agreement where one may have an advantage over the other that creates an imbalance in trade. As an example in the NAFTA agreement, Mexico may have a lower cost labor pool than the United States but the United States may have a transportation advantage that could leverage that low cost of labor. These agreements are called Free Trade Agreements in which both parties agree to lift most or all tariffs, quotas, special fees and taxes, and other barriers to trade between the entities to their mutual benefit.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Rest area safety tips for all retail travelers that want to avoid being a victim.

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

I was reading today?s edition of USA TODAY and read the front page article titled Along Highways, signs of serial killings ?by Blake Morrison. The data was shocking to someone that travels a lot and also has family members that do so to make their living. Over the road travel is how most of our goods are shipped and is also a necessary part of how most suppliers representatives travel to call on our retailers and our retailers work with their stores.?

As such I am posting tips by AAA titled Avoid being a victim.

AAA offers these tips for motorists concerned about their safety at rest areas and truck stops:

??Avoid being the only person at a rest area.
??Park in well-lit spaces near the facilities.
??If you see someone suspicious, wait until the person has left or drive to another location.
??Keep your keys in your hands as you walk to your car. That way, you can quickly enter and lock your car.
??If you’re approached by someone seeking help or information while you’re in your car, keep the doors locked and crack your window to talk with them. Offer to call help for them, but do not get out of your car.
??If someone confronts or grabs you, react loudly and fight back. Make a scene.

Be SAFE out there.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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The economists say the recession has been over for more than a year.

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Finding new sources of supply has always been an issue. It may even be more important if your current suppliers can not provide what you need because they were forced to down size during recent economic woes.

This author has posted on numerous occasions relative to the importance of a robust retail supply chain and how retail companies might manage their relationships with current and new sources of supply. A significant part of the process is to have alternative sources of supply that you can rely upon. During last years H1N1 flu outbreak, The SafeSourceIt™ supplier database was able to provide multiple sources of surgical mask suppliers to a customer that had not been able to find them elsewhere for resale in their stores. Although this particular issue was caused by panic buying, it is still a supply and demand problem. The question this begs is are your suppliers capable of supplying your needs as demand increases? Did they reduce staff during the downturn? Have they been able to ramp up since then? Have their suppliers? The message here is, don’t wait until a time of panic or increased prosperity to work and plan for spikes in the supply chain that may cause your customers pain.

The SafeSourceIt™ Retail Supplier Database contains over 380,000 vetted global suppliers that are certified in over 25 different areas.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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Are you comfortable with your sources of supply? Are your suppliers comfortable with you?

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Being comfortable is great. Sometimes however being to comfortable can also create complacency. We all know we have coworkers that come to work everyday and do what only what they perceive their job to be. Nothing extra is ever done, and few ideas come from these folks that are just comfortable with what they are doing and how they are doing it. They do a good job at it, but that?s it.

Let?s apply this type of complacency to knowledge workers in the supply chain. If we are being honest with ourselves; we see this situation all the time.

?A buyer you know has a list of products or a category manager has a category that they are responsible for. There are only so many hours in the day and they have a job to do in order to get product to a distribution center, warehouse, store or some other location on time. They have done business with the same suppliers for a number of years. In fact the person in the job before them did business with these same suppliers and the person before that. So its easy to not rock the boat. It takes to much time to look for new sources of supply and after all one can only manage so many relationships anyway. Finally the buyer is comfortable with product quality and pricing has not gone up to much over time.

With the help of your e-procurement solution?provider, this situation is easily rectified, but you need to be open to change. This is normally led from the top of the organization. The following is a partial list of what you can do to eliminate complacency and support the fact that you knowledge workers don?t have a lot of free time.

1.?Provide your e-procurement company with a list of your suppliers by category.
2.?Provide your e-procurement provider with a complete list of products carried by each supplier.
3.?As your e-procurement provider to produce a list of new sources of supply located within a fifty mile radius of each distribution center or warehouse
4.?Ask your e-procurement provider to provide data on each supplier?s including incumbent?s safety certifications such as GFSI and ISO.
5.?Ask your e-procurement provider to provide supplier background information such as years in business and user references.
6.?Select categories or products to source from your incumbents catalog and cross reference with new suppliers offerings.

The additional steps to this process can be provided by SafeSourcing as a part of our best practices deliverables which are included in our event pricing. The SafeSourceIt? Supplier database includes over 360,000 global sources of supply that can be sorted by a variety of filters such as country, county, postal code or mileage from a particular location, plus many more.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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Creating a small business network and collaborating creatively within is a great way to reduce your costs.

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

So what the heck is collaboration and what are collaborative partners or networks relative to the supply chain. One thing is for sure, these terms roll of everyone?s tongue like we all know what we are talking about. So this author took a look at Wikipedia hoping to gain some insight and clarity.

According to Wikipedia, Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals, and
An aggregate is a collection of items that are gathered together to form a total quantity.

Since collaboration only means different groups or organizations working together towards the same goal, that term can apply to just about any business function. However when we combine it with the word aggregate to form the collective e- procurement term Collaborative Aggregation which was coined by this author in 2006; we arrive at something potentially meaningful.

Collective buying organizations and sometimes share groups often combine purchasing volumes of like products to drive better discounts. Large companies often aggregate their purchases among departments and are more often today doing the same thing across different operating group?s or companies within a larger organizations to drive economy of scale in purchasing.

The unfortunate truth is that not much out of the box thinking is going on in this process. We are so involved in the process that we can not see the forest for the trees.

As an example let?s take a look at a small regional supermarket chain. Today they buy their products mostly from regional or national wholesalers who are able to aggregate the volumes of many small to medium size companies in order to earn enough discounts to pass on reasonable pricing to this retailer that is slightly better than the small chain might earn on their own.? The wholesaler also reserves a little for themselves in order to support their business. These products are normally for resale products. In the not for resale area or supplies, the regional retailer usually does business with local suppliers for a variety of supplies that can include everything from cleaning fluids to paper bags. The supplier normally does good job of managing these products against a number different cost structures to maintain a customer margin that is good for them. As an example if the price of oil is up and the resin market high, the supplier might be making less on plastic products such as plastic shopping bags, soup containers, trash can liners etc. The supplier may however also carry paper products and other supplies that can be mixed together to drive a total customer margin that is acceptable for their model. Retailers can do the same thing. Here?s a partial list of how collaborative aggregation can work.

1.?Take a good look at the total list of supplies offered from your primary supplier.
2.?Compare that to what you are buying from them.
3.?Ask your e-procurement provider for a list of suppliers within a 50 mile radius that can provide the same products or some of the same products.
4.?Look at local businesses within a five mile radius of your area that are not in your industry but buy some of the same products such as trash can liners, cleaning fluids, paper products etc.
5.?Call them and explain how collaborating might save you all money.
6.?Ask for the name of their supplier as they might be different from yours.
7.?Determine a test group of products to request bids on.
8.?Develop a standard specification.
9.?Develop standard terms and conditions.
10.?Bundle all products into one group.

SafeSourcing has a best practices program for this type of collaborative aggregation that is included in our event fees. For a complete list or more information please contact us at www.safesourcing.com.

We appreciate and look forward to your comments

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We still need to question CHINA.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

There was a point in time that sourcing products from China insured a low cost for your product. Then the price of oil went through the roof and melting down containers returned more than trying ship product in them. Even with oil down somewhat from that time, costs are increasing in China as plant safety and quality and worker safety and quality improves. However, there are still probably bargains to be had, but caution should be your guiding word.

A great example of this is a recent find by Chinese officials of tons of milk products tainted with Melamine. If this sounds familiar, it should. This was an issue in 2008 on which this author posted. The scandal actually killed 6 babies and made hundreds of thousands sick at the time. China actually executed two individuals for producing or selling toxic milk. So here we are in 2010 and the problem has still not been totally corrected and we are talking about products that are only sold in China. It would seem that a country would be more concerned about the quality and safety of products made by the Chinese for the Chinese consumer.

As such, companies need to complete the due diligence necessary to insure that the products you are planning to source include detailed raw materials descriptions, formulas and certifications that are mandated globally to insure product quality, safety and environmental impact standards.

Ask your solutions provider what their vetting procedures are for including suppliers in their database?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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In order to manage your retail supply chain, you first need to know what it is or isn’t.

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Managing a retail supply chain depending on how involved you want to become in the process includes your products and how they get to you, your consumer and the service you provide for the product post sale. This also includes all data about the product in a procure to pay process such as purchase order information, contract information and delivery coordination and status along the way. All of the above requires management of the related financial data such as payment terms and schedules and other financial data. A good place to start is to break this information down into manageable pieces and see how many people are involved in the process internally and externally and how they collaborate with each other if at all. To the extent that you can not connect the lines may include.

As a retailer, you are an obvious part of the consumers supply chain and in some cases also a supplier to other retailers. The network depends on the product but can include yourself,  raw material providers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, third party logistic companies or 3PL’s, and other types of transportation companies. Managing the collaboration of your supply chain is what will ultimately differentiate you from your competition. It’s up to you.

As your procurement solution provider how they might tie all of these disparate organizations together for you.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Retailers, how do you source and select your construction site partners?

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

A great place to start is an organization called the The Construction Safety Council which was founded in 1989. Ask you conduction partners if they are a member.

The CSC is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of safety and health interests in the field of construction throughout the world. It was chartered by a board of directors composed mostly of large construction company owners and operators whose vision and leadership made the organization possible. Since its humble beginnings in 1989, the organization has quickly grown to become a world class professional construction consortium with associations that span the globe. With an emphasis on quality and customer service, all of the construction safety and health resources and loss reduction tools developed by the Construction Safety Council have been designed to maximize positive impact on your safety program.

The SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database has hundreds of construction companies that are held accountable to these types of standards. Are you asking all the right questions or is your solution provider?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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