Total Quality Management Part I of II

May 11th, 2021

Dusting off an old post that is timely still. Learn It, Live It and Love It

 

Today’s post  is from our Archives at   SafeSourcing.

While working for J. Alexander’s Restaurant, we were required to take a TQM (Total Quality Management) class. I was very impressed with their methods and philosophy and was a believer from the start. It really changed the way I approached customer service and have held onto these beliefs since. Here are some of the features of TQM. I hope you will Learn it, Live it and Love it!

Total Quality Management (TQM), also known as total productive maintenance, describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all associates of a company participate in improving processes, products, services, and the values in which they work.

Total Quality Management Principles: The 8 Primary Features of TQM

Total quality management can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused company that involves all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the company.

Tomorrow in Part II we’ll take a look at the 8 features of total quality management

Robert, or any member of the experienced team at SafeSourcing, would be happy to discuss how SafeSourcing can help you with your eProcurement planning. For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

We look forward to your comments.

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Lumber Prices Reach an All-Time High

May 10th, 2021

After approving this month’s newsletter, I sent the following to our team.

 

 

Todays post is from Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

After approving this month’s newsletter, I sent the following to our team.

The services that SafeSourcing provides are so important to our customers. Many companies do not understand how much help SafeSourcing can provide. In our May newsletter Gayl Southard our Vice President of Administration points out the ever-changing business landscape that the pandemic has caused.

Two specific examples are the price of Lumber and the price of Chlorine. In some cases, lumber is up 50% with no reduction in pricing on the near-term horizon. The question this begs for companies and individuals; is why pay a 50% premium when you might only need to pay 25% if that. If buyers sourced their lumber in a different way and recognized that cost mitigation is just as important as savings versus your old pricing. If you know companies or individuals whose costs are going up and out of control for any product or service, please tell them about SafeSourcing.

The following is an excerpt from our May Newsletter being distributed this week. that is produced by Gayl Southard, Vice President of Administration at SafeSourcing. Our circulation for the newsletter is about 6.5K subscribers.

The price of lumber is generating profits for sawmills; however, do-it-yourselfers, renters, and home buyers are footing the bill.  The record three-month profits in 2021 are even fatter than last year.  These companies have emerged as the biggest growing businesses during this wood boom.    Plywood and lumber are flying off the shelves at hardware stores and are being bid up by home builders.  “Lumber futures delivery later this month ended Monday at $1,575.60 per thousand board feet, an all-time high and more than four times the typical price this time of year.  Futures have risen by the daily maximum allowed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange during nine of April’s 21 trading sessions.”1

The first of May the futures shot up $75.50, the biggest jump in a single day.  Mill owners say they are backed up with orders into June.  Builders are reporting high home sales.  When COVID hit last year, many sawmills sent their worker’s home.  Forty percent of North America’s sawmills came to grinding halt.  Now things have taken a dramatic turn in the opposite direction.

1 Ryan December, WSJ, 5/4/2021

If you would like to learn more as to how SafeSourcing can help reduce your costs immediately or would like to subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter, please contact a SafeSourcing customer servicers account manager.

 

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What are Amazon Alexa Skills?

May 7th, 2021

Get ready for Amazon Prime Day in coming up in a week on July 15th and 16th!

 

 

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing Inc.

With Amazon Prime Day rapidly approaching, it might be time for you to consider purchasing an Amazon Echo if you do not already own one. The Echo is a voice activated; internet connected smart speaker that contains a built-in virtual assistant named Alexa. Alexa will follow voice activated commands and can answer questions, stream music from current music services, set alarms and timers and control smart home devices such as lights, alarm systems and thermostats. If the Echo is a little out of your price range, or you are looking for a more inexpensive alternative, you may consider purchasing an Amazon Echo Dot. This is a hockey puck sized device that is smaller than the Echo and about half the price. Since the Dot is smaller, the sound quality will not be as good as the Echo but is still packs all of the same features. One of the things that make these devices so powerful are the Alexa skills. Alexa comes with a set of built-in skills, but other third-party skills can be downloaded as well. You can think of skills like apps that you download to your smartphone or tablet. These skills can be used for a variety of things such as answering questions, receiving weather forecasts, controlling smart home devices and receiving news content. There is an endless selection of skills that are available and here are a few of the most popular.

  • Apple Music
  • Nest Thermostat
  • Philips Hue
  • Logitech Harmony
  • iRobot Home
  • Amazon Storytime
  • Spelling Bee
  • ESPN
  • Sleep Sounds
  • Zyrtec Daily AllergyCast
  • Uber/Lyft
  • NYC Subway
  • Domino’s Pizza
  • GrubHub
  • OpenTable

If you are interested in upgrading any of your electronic devices, feel free to contact SafeSourcing. We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which devices meet your needs. If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

 

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What is a Commodity?

May 6th, 2021

What it is not; are the things you buy all the time and use frequently

 

Todays post is by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

What it is not; are the things you buy all the time and use frequently. I have had many buyers, category managers and other procurement knowledge workers say to me on many occasions that Reverse auctions are good for buying our commodity purchases like cups,, cleaning supplies etc. but not for much else. We all know that is 100% not true. First of all, most buyers do not buy commodities unless they are going to make a finished product or are buying a consumable like beef or corn. Most buyers buy products that are influenced by or contain commodities. An example might be something like corrugate, where the pulp market, the corn market to name a couple are involved in the final product. You would be shocked by the number of products that are produced that come from corn.

To simplify, a Commodity as defined by the Bing Dictionary is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold, such as copper or coffee. And from  Wikipedia, a Commodity as used In economics, is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.

Quite often you can find a commodity index that report on the price of a commodity in both a forward looking or future as well as historical view. These tools can be helpful in determining where pricing was and where it is going particularly if you finished good contains significant amounts of multiple commodities as mentioned above.

Commodities are a beast to manage and keep track off! Companies like SafeSourcing are set up to watch their movement and recommend strategies to mitigate that movement in your pricing. To learn more, please reach out to a SafeSourcing Customer Services Representative. You will be glad you did.

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The Geographical Significance of Vendor Selection

May 4th, 2021

When you are a national company looking to source products or services what mix of vendors should you look at?

 

Today’s post is the SafeSourcing  BLOG Archives.

Many National companies are faced with the dilemma of trying to control the sourcing of products and services across their company in a way that consolidates what they purchase and helps them control who they are working with.   Many times our customers will tell us that they are only interested in speaking with companies who can handle their entire company; only National providers will be considered.  The SafeSourcing recommendation frequently will be to expand that vision in order to create an opportunity for greater overall value, and possibly better savings.

Today we will be looking at the advantages of each of the three geographical levels that companies can employ when setting up their projects and why a good mix of all three can create greater opportunities for success for your company.

National suppliers – There are some obvious advantages for selecting National providers to be involved with sourcing projects.  As you grow they will have the infrastructure in place to support you and your business.  In many cases they have a support system and reporting system that can assist you with tracking what you are spending and where those products and services are being delivered to.  National suppliers have the size to be able to reduce the overall costs of the items you purchase but they also have the overhead and internal expenses that it takes to maintain a National company.   National companies tend to have larger market share and recognition so their aggressiveness in competing for your business may not always be in line with that of the regional and local suppliers who are looking for any way to get some of your business.

Regional suppliers – Regional suppliers tend to cover 20 to 40% of the country and focus on a specific area such as the Northeast, Southeast, West Coast, etc.  The advantages of the regional supplier are that they are large enough to be aggressive in price and to offer great value-add services but they are focused enough to know the area they are servicing.  Regional suppliers have typically mastered the logistics of their shipping lanes and many times know the culture and the people in the area better than a National supplier does.  While having multiple suppliers loses some of the advantages of having a National program, the services and prices may indicate a 2 or 3 supplier award makes the most sense for the company.

Local suppliers – Local suppliers who handle either a city or an entire state, are typically brought into a procurement event for one of two reasons.   They either are an incumbent of one the locations currently or they are being reviewed for a rural area that is not supported well by a national or regional supplier.  Local suppliers have the flexibility to be aggressive in pricing (especially for services) and they can usually support rural areas better than larger companies.  Having local companies involved gives incumbents a chance to fight for the business they have previously had and possibly win new business and it provides great options for locations that need special attention.   Local suppliers will also ensure that the regional and national suppliers are staying competitive in the service levels, terms and pricing they are offering you across the company.

The mix of suppliers you invite to your sourcing projects are every bit as important as the history and specifications you supply those suppliers and developing a strategy of the right mix will be important to how successful your projects end up.  While you may intend on finding one National provider, the value offered may demand you consider a 2-3 company award at the end and having options at the local level for special situations and emergencies is something every company should have a contingency plan for.

For more information about how we can assist you with developing these supplier selection strategies, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments

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Reverse Supply Chain Management or Reverse Logistics!

May 3rd, 2021

There’s a lot of cost avoidance and re-valuing opportunity in RSCM, are you capturing it?

 

Today’s re-post is from our SafeSourcing Archives.

We’ve spent years perfecting how to get “stuff” from in the dirt where we found it, make it more useful, and put it into consumers hands. This is called “logistics”. But now we’re faced with the task of figuring out how to do the opposite, without destroying the planet we got it from.

Enter Reverse Supply Chain Management (RSCM) or “Reverse Logistics as it’s sometimes called. The short definition of RSCM is to capture value from end of life products, and to take them backwards into the supply chain and/or reintroduce them into the biosphere/technosphere through a sustainable and profitable system. This can include activities such as reacquiring ownership of used products from the end user back to the manufacturer or reseller, transportation of used products for sorting, evaluation and designation of products for their most profitable use, remanufacturing or refurbishing, creating secondary markets for reclaimed products, recycling back to base components and responsible disposal.

One example of RSCM is the relatively new business of “Deconstruction”. In this process buildings are taken apart based upon material component value. These materials are either re-used in new construction, recycled into raw materials, or disposed of through environmentally sustainable means. Total annual building materials (C&D debris) disposed of in landfills in the US each year is not tracked by the EPA, but estimates range between 170 and 600 million tons disposed of in landfills currently, typically with only certain metals ever being collected and recycled from the debris. Organizations pioneering this field can be found at http://www.bignyc.org/, http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/, and www.bmra.org.

Another example of businesses capturing value from RSCM is Dupont, which achieved zero-landfill status at one of their facilities that allowed them to realize $2.2 million in revenue in 2011 from the sale of waste by-products, and $400,000 in cost avoidance (http://www2.dupont.com/inclusive-innovations/en-us/gss/sustainability/employee-engagement/landfill.html). Similarly Subaru, GM, Honda, and Burt’s Bee’s have captured additional revenue or cost avoidance by repurposing waste through reverse logistical processes (http://www.greenmanufacturer.net/article/facilities/manufacturers-gone-zero-landfill).

The challenge is that reversing the supply chain for products that have been modified in an infinite number of ways over their usage life is exponentially more complex than taking virgin material to end consumer product. The premise to that problem however, should be that not engaging this process now while it’s optional, only makes what will certainly become a necessity more complex the longer it’s postponed, and presents a large opportunity cost every year potential new savings/revenue is not captured.

We at SafeSourcing have a knack for finding markets and cost avoidance opportunities that most don’t aren’t even aware exist. For more information on how we can help you with your procurement needs or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

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Knowledge Management Framework Can Help Your Business?

April 29th, 2021

A Knowledge Management framework is ......

 

“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”—Dalai Lama

Today’s post is from our archives at SafeSourcing Inc.

A Knowledge Management framework is a complete system of People, Process, Technology and governance, which ensures that Knowledge management is applied systematically and effectively to improve business results.1.

➢ People; knowledge management roles have to be established in the business, communities need to be set up to share and reuse tacit knowledge, behaviors such as seeking for and sharing knowledge need to be incentivized, and to become ‘the way we work’2

➢ KM Processes; there has to be a tried-and-tested process for capturing, distilling, validating, storing, applying and reusing knowledge, and also for innovating.

➢ KM Technologies; the people and the process need to be supported by enabling technology, which allows knowledge to be found and accessed wherever it resides (in databases, on the Intranet, in people’s heads). IT plays an important role in KM, by providing the technology to allow people to communicate.2

➢ KM Governance; without a governance system that promotes and recognizes sharing and the re-use of knowledge, any attempts to introduce KM are going to be a hard struggle. Stay tuned for next month’s blog where we explore more about Knowledge Management Framework.2

Why is this important in your business?

A strong KM framework is vital for the success of Knowledge Management; as follows 3

➢ With no accountabilities, it is nobody’s job.

➢ With no processes, nobody knows how.

➢ With no technology, nobody has the tools.

➢ With no governance, nobody sees the point.

We hope you enjoyed today’s blog. Stay tuned for next month’s blog where we explore more about Knowledge Cycle.  For more information on how SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to your comments.

——————————————————————-

Resource: 

  1. http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/different-types-of-knowledge.html
  2. http://www.knowledge-management-cafe.com/faq/what-knowledge-management-
  3. www.knoco.com/knowledg-management-framework-design.ht

 

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The Mother of Invention

April 28th, 2021

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

 

Today’s post is written by Ivy Ray, Senior Procurement Specialist at SafeSourcing Inc.

As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.  Most often, it is not necessary to recreate the wheel; you just have to make the wheel more efficient. Some of our nation’s top inventions were created to make a task faster, or a product better than it was.  This was true for the food wars during and after WWII.

C.E. Doolin, of Texas, did not create the fried corn chip known as Fritos, nor is Herman Lay the creator potato chips.  Using the model of Henry Ford’s assembly line, they each developed and created a way to mass produce a better, more shelf stable product that we enjoy today. Doolin and Lay battled for years to maintain the market share for snack foods within their regions.

Once they had perfected their product to be resistant to spoilage, they each rallied to convince the U.S. Government to provide it as a filling snack for the troops who were serving all across the world.  The competition remained fierce for years until they combined forces in the 1960s to become Frito-Lay, one the largest snack food manufacturers in the nation.  Currently, revenue from the U.S. grain-based snack and bakery industry accounts for over $100 billion in annual retail sales.

The procurement role has been around since the ancient times, and has evolved over time. The basic benefit of supply chain management is to acquire the necessary materials to keep businesses running.  Supplier competition drives savings and gives your organizations the ability to focus on quality and dependability. There are currently several e-procurement platforms on the market; however the benefits of using an e-procurement solution that offers a complete procure-to-pay suite of applications to help your organization reach your strategic goals.  SafeSourcing has improved the wheel of procurement and will partner to help you improve your organization’s bottom line.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist

We look forward to your comments.

 

 

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Think Fast and Act Faster

April 27th, 2021

The phrase “Pushing the envelope”… DO YOU? WE ALL SHOULD!

 

 

Today’s blog is by Gayl Southard, Vice President of Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

The phrase “Pushing the envelope” was a termed coined by test pilots such as John Glenn and Chuck Yeager in the 1950’s. “ Each aircraft they flew was said to have an ‘envelope’ of performance. In other words, it was designed to fly safely up to a certain speed for a certain distance and a certain altitude. The job of the test pilots was to “push the envelope” by making the plane go faster, farther, and higher.”1

Harvey MacKay says that what “pushing the envelope” means to him is pushing oneself to maximize your advantage to be better, faster, and smarter in order to get the results you want in business and in life. Today having a great product isn’t enough…people expect things faster, better and cheaper. All parts of your business need to be up to speed. This is particularly important with customer service. You need to handle complaints quickly and efficiently, therefore resulting in a satisfied customer. If you make customers No. 1 they will make you No. 1. Businesses have to keep up or get passed by.  Walmart and Kmart are good examples to learn from. Walmart has continually made changes and reinvented themselves, whereas Kmart remained stagnant struggled (after being acquired by Sears) and went in and out of bankruptcy.

We now live in a world of instant gratification. Consumers expect speed. It is important to get your workforce, employees, contractors, and vendors up to speed by training them to execute tasks faster, innovate, and share best practice ideas. It is important never to sacrifice speed for quality. Train correctly, and constantly to move at a fast pace.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

References….…………….

1. Harvey Mackey, WSJ, 7/12/2020

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Here are Five Basic Tips for Writing a Strategic Online Survey!

April 26th, 2021

If they are written correctly, Surveys are a great tool for procurement knowledge workers looking for specific data.

 

Todays post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

Creating an effective, quality written Online Survey that produces the detailed information you require from respondents can be a challenge. In this post, we’ll review 5 quick tips for writing a Strategic Online Survey.

  1. Create a naming convention for the survey and write a brief summarizing introduction. A Survey name and a brief introduction are great ways to give your respondents some detailed background and a frame of reference.
  2. Write a summarizing, brief survey. Begin with an outline of details as to what is important to know for the project. Formulate a question only when the answer will provide data you can use and need.
  3. Think ahead as to how the analysis of the information will look, as in what your end game will look like. This should impact how you format your questions. Statistical reporting may not be able to be performed if your questions to not adhere to the results framework you have pre planned.
  4. Attempt to use closed-ended questions. Limit the number of open-ended questions as these provide and opportunity to the respondent to get off track. Respondents usually have a better understanding of closed-ended questions because they are more straightforward and offer responses they can choose from. An excessive number of open-ended questions can frustrate the respondent and affect the quality of the answers they may provide.
  5. Craft a well-written pertinent subject line for the invitation email you plan on sending with the survey in order to capture your respondents’ attention.

Although these five simple steps are enough to get you started in the right direction reaching out to professionals like SafeSourcing about their SafeSurvey™ tool for additional guidance will guarantee the results you are looking for. A well-written online survey has much higher completion rates and is an effective method for gathering disparate data from differing sources in a format that us usable.

If you’d like to learn more about the SafeSourcing  SafeSurvey™ please contact a SafeSourcing Project Manager.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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