PIBlogger

Hansen Consulting and Seminars New Credit Certificate Program

PI Blogger — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:19:40 +0100

Whenever you purchase a Hansen Consulting and Seminars Inc white paper or service, you will receive a $25 HCSI credit certificate towards your next purchase.

Accumulating knowledge through sharing knowledge!

Whenever someone you have referred purchases a Hansen Consulting and Seminars Inc white paper or service, you will receive an HCSI $25 credit certificate towards your next purchase.

As good as money! Papers and services that qualify for redemption under the HCSI credit certificate program:

Double Marginalization and the Decentralized Supply Chain (White Paper)

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

The Number 1 Question . . . How Can A Consultant Really Help Us?

PI Blogger — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:39:55 +0100

Over the past few weeks I have received a spate of questions regarding Procurement Insights, and in particular the services offered through Hansen Consulting and Seminars. In short what do I do, and how can I help an organization.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Is There a Poor “Herbie” anywhere in the Oracle SCM Area?

PI Blogger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:45:27 +0100

Member Question:

From the “Theory of Constraints” there is poor Herbie, the infamous bottleneck in the supply chain pipeline. For any of you who use the Oracle Supply Chain 11.5.9 (or above) platform, is there any built-in “Herbie” that you’ve noticed, or has it been custom code wrapped around vanilla, that effected you most?

New York City, U.S.

My Response:

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

How Not To Abandon Your e-Procurement Initiative

PI Blogger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:08:44 +0100

In the September 2004 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, Mark Henricks’ article (Flaw and Order) referenced behavioral economics studies that identified the eight hidden strategy flaws frequently championed by corporate decision-makers.

While all eight provide a most interesting read, the two that seem to relate specifically to the challenges associated with the majority of e-procurement initiatives are the sunk-cost effect and the herding instinct.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Technology’s Diminishing Role in an Emerging Process-Driven World”

PI Blogger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:59:54 +0100

Whenever I have been invited to speak or write about the dramatic changes in procurement methodologies and practices, the significant interest by organizations that have a technology driven program already in place or have just recently implemented one still surprise me.

Unlike years past, where attention was predominantly centered on learning more about new and emerging technologies, today’s procurement professionals are seeking insights into the actual processes that drive their enterprises.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

ACRES OF DIAMONDS: The Value of Effectively Managing Low-Dollar, High Transactional Volume Spend

PI Blogger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:36:58 +0100

The fact remains that the majority of procurement initiatives have traditionally focused on the big bang high-dollar, leveraged spend approach to procurement. While this approach is appropriate for certain commodities utilizing an event-centric tool, extensive research including a CAPS 2003 study indicates that it does not create a sustainable COGs savings model. The examples provided by the Floor to Ceiling Analyses included with this report provides further confirmation of this assessment.

Eliminate Maverick Buying: Closing the Gap Between Sources of Supply and Demand Through Web-Based Procurement

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:49:06 +0100

In his book e-Procurement, From Strategy to Implementation, Dale Neef estimated that “nearly 80%
of organizations that have rushed to establish Web sites for online retailing have failed to invest in
the purchasing and distribution systems that make delivery of their products possible.”i

At the height of the dot.com revolution, businesses were focused almost entirely on the potential of
the Internet. Driven to jump on the “new economy” bandwagon and not get left behind, corporate
executives placed more emphasis on establishing Internet presence, rather than on how it could be

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Just Imagine—a Flawless Procurement Merger Integration! (Guest Author: Glenda Leatherman)

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:29:10 +0100

Picture yourself as a procurement professional in a regulated industry (e.g., telecommunications). Your company is one of three major players in this industry that are about to merge. Your assignment—should you choose to accept it—is to bring the three procurement organizations together into one functioning organization within months of Merger Day 1. With thought and planning, here is how “Mission Impossible” could become a reality.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Supply Chain Confidence? (A PI Q and A)

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:22:28 +0100

The following is an interesting question I received from a Master of Science (M.Sc.) Business Technologies student who is working on her thesis “Measuring Confidence in Supply Chain Management System: An empirical approach.”

Reader Question:

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Technology and the Growing Talent Crunch!

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:48:37 +0100

A debate of reasonable fury has been raging since the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their latest report on procurement sector job growth. The primary point of contention is the BLS’ assertion that the “overall employment for purchasing and supply managers is expected to grow slower than the average for all occupations through the year 2014.” Adding further fuel to the “sky is falling” fire that seems to be the theme of the majority of commentaries written on this issue, is BLS’ position that the “demand for purchasing workers will be eliminated by improving software.”

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Procurement’s expanding role and the executive of the future

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:42:08 +0100

In 2006 CPO Agenda’s London-based editor chaired a panel discussion asking the question “are there any limits to procurement’s role?”

The panel which included senior procurement personnel from organizations such as Nestlé, Danone, British Airways and Merrill Lynch provided some interesting insights into the prevailing (and emerging) attitudes towards procurement from an executive suite perspective. (You can obtain a copy of the panel’s discussion through the following link: http://www.cpoagenda.com/previous-articles/winter-2006-7/executive-debat....)

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Public Sector Procurement and the Wal-Mart Effect

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:34:53 +0100

In Part 4 of my Changing Face of Procurement conference series titled Winning Strategies for Vendor Engagement I ask attendees the question; “is your current e-procurement initiative a threat or a benefit to your supply base?”

While the answer is of course important, what is of greater significance is whether or not your organization has even considered the impact its current strategy is having on these important external stakeholders.

An important question worth asking!

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Yes Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 1)

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:03:06 +0100

My recent post on the series of interviews I had with Ariba garnered considerable interest and feedback. By far the most interesting (and insightful) comments came from the Commonwealth of Virginia. What was compelling about the Virginia response was their willingness to provide a perspective from what they referred to as the “other side of the fence.” What was refreshing is that the subsequent interview revealed an extremely capable group of people whose passion for procurement was only rivaled by their commitment to a vision.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

The Privatization of PWGSC: Are Taxpayer Dollars Funding Private Sector Empire Building Within The Government Bureaucracy?

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:53:25 +0100

You know the old story about peeling back the onion. While the title to today’s post may seem a tad fantastic it is not out of the realm of possibility, at least from an operational perspective. After all just ask the private insurance companies in Manitoba what they thought both before and after that provincial government introduced Autopac.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

NPM’s guiding principles for creating a “Slim” State: What Marshall, Tipple and Rotor should have known?

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:41:42 +0100

I am certain that many of us who have tracked the ongoing saga of the Government of Canada’s Way Forward initiative over the years has undoubtedly read Kathryn May’s article regarding former PWGSC Deputy Minister David Marshall’s testimony at the Federal Labor Relations Board Hearing regarding the dismissal of Douglas Tipple and David Rotor (Ottawa Citizen, September 27th, 2007).

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

The FOSS(ilization) of the supply chain: The risks of a strategy centered on Free Open Source Software

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:36:17 +0100

I recently reviewed (actually browsed as there were only10 PowerPoint slides in total) a Government of Canada presentation to attendees of the September 2006 CIO Summit in Ottawa.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Is Cisco Really Driving 21st Century Supply Chain Innovation, metaprise, k.c. wu, oracle, larry ellison, sequential

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:27:47 +0100

Earlier this year, World Trade Magazine’s Neil Shister wrote an article titled “The 21st Century Supply Chain: Cisco Builds a Supply Chain.”

Beside the article itself, what I found particularly interesting was his adjunct sidebar interview with Cisco’s Vice President, Worldwide Manufacturing Angel Mendez.

Mr. Mendez, who Mr. Shister referred to as a “bona fide star in the supply chain world,” made a number of interesting observations in response to a series of equally interesting questions.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

The Continuing Dangers of Vendor Rationalization

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:58:33 +0100

As mentioned in a previous post, the feedback I receive from procurement professionals who attend my conferences never fail to make an impact in terms of the grassroots challenges they face on a daily basis.

Often times, it is the adherence to long held beliefs and strategies that undermine their efforts to deliver maximum value in an expanding global economy.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Public Sector Procurement Practice and the principles of External Economies, Clustering and the Global Value Chain

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:54:33 +0100

Can the public sector effectively apply the principles of External Economies to its procurement practice?

“External economies of scale (ES) occur outside of a firm, within an industry. Thus, when an industry’s scope of operations expands due to, for example, the creation of a better transportation network, resulting in a subsequent decrease in costs for a company working within that industry, external economies of scale are said to have been achieved. With external ES, all firms within the industry will benefit.” (What Are Economies of Scale? By Reem Heakal, January 2003)

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Optimization Modeling and the Modern Supply Chain

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:24:36 +0100

Member Question:

Have you been able to utilize simulation or optimization modeling to solve a demand-side supply chain problem? If so, what was it?

My Response:

There have been numerous studies and reports on the various methods (i.e. Monte Carlo) used in determining supply chain optimization.

I would have to say that my preferred method has been to use the heuristic approach under an agent-based model in which the unique operating attributes of each stakeholder is understood separately before a collective outcome is identified and achieved.

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group

Understanding the SCOR Methodology (A PI Q and A)

PI Blogger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:22:14 +0100

Member Question:

I am interested in learning the SCOR - model. Who can recommend a quick reference to this methodology?

My Answer:

Supply Chain and Procurement Practices Group