Archive for the ‘Sourcing Safe Products’ Category

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Did you know that chickens used to wear sun glasses?

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

A lot has evolved in animal safety, and chickens don?t wear sunglasses any more, but go back three quarters of a century when my grandfather owned one the largest chicken farms in the northeast and they did and it was also to keep them safe.

According to the Optical Vision Site. – Sunglasses for Chickens! They were invented in 1939 to control cannibalistic behavior of chickens. According to blame it on the voices the sunglasses were held on the chicken?s beak with a cotter pin through the nostrils of the bird.? Chickens are provoked by the sight of blood and will peck at each other, eventually killing off much of the flock. These red lenses prevented chickens from seeing the red blood and calmed their behavior. These have not been manufactured for many years and we do not have any available for sale. These glasses are now considered a collector?s item.

If you want to learn more about the Good Egg Project please visit their website.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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What’s important to you in the development of your negotiation strategy Part II of II?

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

During yesterdays post we discussed that before you can negotiate effectively you will have to go back to the drawing board and develop a procurement strategy. Once that’s in place negotiation best practices can follow.

Here’s some of what you might consider. Remember this is not how we will negotiate (tactics) this is what do you want for a result set that supports your overall procurement strategy?

Result Thoughts:  What are you looking for from our negotiations?

1. Alternative or additional sources of supply?
2. Better quality products!
3. Lower costs!
4. Where possible products that support a reduction in your environmental foot print!
5. Products and Services that are safe for your associates and consumers!
6. Clear and concise contracts!
7. Elimination of quick deals!
8. A win-win result (define) for your company and your supply partner!
9. Open unbiased treatment of all suppliers during the process!
10. A collaborative process that eliminates stove pipes and supports logical aggregation without maverick buying!
11. Internal subject matter experts (SME) going forward!
12. Standardized specifications and Terms and conditions!

There is certainly any number of items that could be added to this list, but it should get you started. As a result you should have a procurement strategy and a negotiation strategy in place. The next step would be the tactics.

If you’d like more information please contact a SafeSourcing representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Ron Southard

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Suppliers; do your handlers, packers and processors have a Food Alliance Certification?

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Food Alliance provides comprehensive third-party certification for social and environmental responsibility in agriculture and the food industry.

Today, there are more than 320 Food Alliance Certified operations, and over six million acres managed by Food Alliance Certified producers throughout North America.

Food Alliance Certified products include meats, eggs, dairy, mushrooms, grains, legumes, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and prepared products made with these certified ingredients.

With clear standards and criteria, Food Alliance certification is a practical, credible, and effective way for farmers, ranchers, and food companies to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability in agricultural practices and facilities management.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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What’s the most cost effective action that companies of all types and sizes can take to help reduce the number of food born or airborne illnesses?

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

I was reading USA TODAY (I do this every day). I love their Snapshots at the bottom of each section. Today’s front page USA TODAY Snapshot was titled Has news coverage on airborne/foodborne illnesses prompted you to wash your hands more by Rachel Huggins and Veronica Bravo.  The snapshot sites Bradley Corps Healthy Hand Washing Survey and indicates that 54% of those surveyed said NO and 46% said YES.

Personally I find these results disturbing. Just think about how often you shake someone’s hand and then think about what they were doing in the 15 minutes before you met. Maybe Howie Mandel has it right by just doing the fist bump.

If the answer to this survey were 100%, it would be interesting to see what the impact on these types’ illnesses would be. As a result, this author will continue to write about food safety and strategies that companies can take to reduce them

Go wash your hands.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Are you developing sustainable strategies with your office supplies purchases?

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Toner products are a great example of an opportunity to use a sustainable resource. At present, you are probably just buying toner products because you need them. Have you actually taken the time to look at more environmentally focused toner solutions?  

It’s a safe bet that your company is using laser printers. You may even have a thoughtful blue paper recycling container near the copier or even near every printer. You may even use recycled paper. The next step is a logical one; use environmentally friendly soy based ink for your laser printers.

SafeSourcing’s opinion is that the two best environmental reasons to use soy based ink are as follows. One, soy ink does not emit VOCs or volatile organic compounds. Two, soy ink is not petroleum based.  In a nut shell, you will be replacing a product based on a non sustainable source with one that is.

If you still need more reasons to switch? Assuming that you are already recycling paper, you will be glad to learn that soy based ink is said to make recycling the paper quicker and easier. Also, this option opens you up to new sources of supply. The next time you run an e-procurement event for toner, you will have more options, greater price compression and another notch in your environmentally friendly tool belt.

Once done with this project, you need to brag about it so that other companies take notice and follow your lead. If you have implemented the full array of green printing mentioned in this blog, you have earned the right. Your customers will be happy to hear that you have made the right choices.

If you would like to learn more about environmentally friendly practices for your business, please visit www.SafeSourcing.com and check out our blog archives and our sourcing wiki both full of useful information. 

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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How do your buyers and category managers keep up with all of the product and safety recalls?

Friday, September 16th, 2011

The amount of information we are all required to be aware of today is simply mind boggling. As such a simple and effective tool that looks at the many sites providing this information and consolidating it in one location is your best bet to event try and stays aware of this information.

Most organizations like the USDA, FDA, EcoLogo, Kosher Council and the Consumer Product Safety Commission all offer RSS feeds of their most recent recalls and alerts. At SafeSourcing we consolidate over 50 of those companies so that you don’t have to. When you reach our site, the RSS fed alerts and recall section is located in the top right hand corner of the page. If you had been logged on to our system today you would already know that the listeria outbreak associated with cantaloupes has already killed four people and has spread to multiple states. What is listeria you ask? Visit the SafeSourcing Wiki to learn about many procurement related terms.

Are you aware of the Tylenol recall?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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Hey buyers! The economy is still terrible. Maybe now is the time to finally try reverse auctions.

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

However, we continue to see a reasonable uptick in the use of e-negotiation tools in retail and this author believes that some of the following quotes from a retail CEO and his team  that watched their first  reverse auction last week may be the reason why.
1. “This was pretty simple to do”
2. “If we hired someone we could do these ourselves with you guys”
3. “This is fun”
4. “You mean the reports are already available”
5. “I love the sports concept”
6. “It was easy to follow the marquis and what was going on from one screen”
7. “The multiple color schemes were great”
8. “I can’t believe how fast you guys set this up”
9. “We saved that much money and only have to pay what we discussed”
10. “Can we do another one today”
11. “I may get a promotion out of this”
12. “I love that calculator at the end of the bid process”
13. “I like all of the supplier data that was accessible during the auction”
14. “Now I know how the big guys get the pricing they do”

Why not join others that have come a little late to the party. You can still benefit because today’s tools are easier to use, more interactive, maintain your attention during an auction, integrate gaming technology to keep it fun and are lower cost than their predecessors. If you happen to have already been doing this for years, why not find an easier way or do it less expensively.

If you would like to have fun, save money and do it quickly, please visit us at www.safesoucing.com.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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How socially focused or responsible is your company.

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Well if that’s the case why not apply for B Corporation certification. In essence this would be putting your money where your mouth is. At this point there are no real hard financial incentives for a company to do this. At least four states  have passed or proposed B Corp legislation, but it is pretty clear that all will in the future.

So just what is a B CORP? I’m glad you asked. If you visit the Certified B Corporation website you’ll learn that Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.  B Corps are unlike traditional businesses because they:
        • Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental    performance standards;
        • Meet higher legal accountability standards;
        • Build business constituency for good business

SafeSourcing is going to add B Corporation certification to our database of supplier certifications and ask companies our customers’ partner with what their plans are to achieve B Corp Certification as part of their current or future CSR initiatives. We do the same for over 30 other certifications today such as Eco Logo, SQF and LEED.

If we do a small part and our customers do a small part and their suppliers do a small part, the parts will add up. Pay it forward and do your part.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Ron Southard CEO SafeSourcing

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Health Canada, a tool for buyers in Canada that costs little yet contains a lot.

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

In Canada, it’s as simple as visiting the Health Canada Website. According to Wikipedia Health Canada (French: Santé Canada) is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health. Here you can find news releases, speeches, media notices and research a variety of data related to health and food safety within Canada.

Just as yesterdays post  “Buyers; Do you need a great place to research product quality and recall issues” that talked about The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission  the Canadian Government has many tools that buyers can use that also cost nothing. You just have to spend a little time on their site.

Sometimes the best tools are the ones you don’t have to pay for.

We look forward to and appreciates your comments.

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Buyers; Do you need a great place to research product quality and recall issues?

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

 Recalls and Product Safety News can be found at the CPSC’s website and can be searched using a number of categories, dates and other criteria such as those below.

1. Recall Number
2. Company
3. Product Type
4. Product Description
5. Hazard
6. Country/Administrative Area of Manufacture
7. Recall Date
8. UPC

You don’t always have to buy something in order to get your job done. Sometimes just knowing where to find the information can be the hardest part of your job. Now you have one fewer places to look.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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