Elements of an Effective Supplier Management Program

You would think that in today’s world, effective supplier management programs are well defined and utilized throughout every company. The sad fact is that we have worked with middle market companies up to $500M in annual revenues who don’t have an effective supplier management program. The smaller the company, the worse it gets despite the fact that supplier management is one of the 7 critical business processes that every company must master in order to achieve long term success. Many organizations have …Read More

Unhappy with your current DC? Expanding to a new region?

Whatever your reason for wanting to open a new warehouse or distribution center, you know that the decision can’t be taken lightly… and 3PL providers don’t make it easy to do side-by-side comparisons of their services and prices. There is more to developing an analysis of the options than …Read More

Are you getting all you can from your best 3PL Warehouse Provider?

If you are using more than one 3PL warehouse provider and each one is a standalone partner, you may have opportunities to simplify day-to-day operations and maintain or reduce your SG&A costs, even if you expand your distribution network. Let me tell you a quick story. …Read More

Working capital, cash flow and operating profits are primary measures of senior leadership performance. Companies audit their financials every year to validate compliance and performance, but typically don’t have an audit plan for critical business processes that impact these performance measures and the customer’s perception of performance.

There are 7 critical business processes that every company must …Read More

I was recently speaking with a client about Make vs. Buy. We were discussing when the appropriate time was for doing that kind of analysis. The natural assumption is that world class organizations are doing that kind of analysis whenever a new product program or a major new contract is being worked on. It should be part of every analysis to provide continuous feedback to the Manufacturing organization and the business’s executives. Make vs. Buy analysis will tell you …Read More