Jul
16
10 Things That Will Build An Inefficient Purchasing Team
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Everyone wants an efficient purchasing team, so in order to learn just what is an efficient purchasing team it can be helpful to turn the issue on its head and look at how you can build an inefficient purchasing team, so that you can avoid this at all costs!
1. Have a culture where there is no collaboration between the purchasing team and suppliers. Use a stick to beat them (metaphorically of course) but ensure that they do not share any information with suppliers and above all, do not communicate with them!
2. Have a culture where price is the only determining factor when it comes to choosing suppliers. This will ensure that the supply chain is weak and unstable and this will render the purchasing team not just inefficient but completely impotent!
3. Always ensure that the purchasing team will ignore all quality control issues and requirements. This will result in defects, shoddy goods and the production line being interrupted, which will show the purchasing team in all its inefficient glory.
4. The purchasing team should be unrecognised by top management. They should not have the backing of management and instead should simply be very much a back room function that is given no recognition at all. Without the endorsement of senior management or the boardroom, no one will listen to what they have to say and they will soon lose any efficiency they may have had……
5. Separate the purchasing team from the design team and do not let them communicate with the design team. This means that the purchasing team will have no idea of what is happening within the design team or be aware of any issues that may be causing problems within the production process, again rendering their efforts ineffective.
6. Do not allow the purchasing team to become involved in demand planning or looking at what the future demand is likely to be. If you do this, then the supply chain will be precarious and make the purchasing team virtually unable to do their jobs in any way, let alone an efficient manner.
7. Foster a culture of inflexibility. The more flexible the supply chain is the easier the job will be for the procurement team. So the ideal (when building an inefficient team) is to create a culture where there is no flexibility and they will find that the supply chain will simply not be able to come up with the goods when required, which is a fundamental requirement for the performance of a purchasing team.
8. When building an inefficient team, you don’t need to worry about the calibre of the purchasing team. You appoint anyone, it doesn’t matter if they understand the principles of purchasing or how it is done in the 21st Century. Anyone will do; after all to build an efficient team you need to secure the best quality candidates, but if you are creating an inefficient one, you can simply appoint anyone……
9. Always have a disparate team who are simply individuals who are also mavericks; the more they are separate and doing their own thing then the more inefficient the team will be. For the purchasing team to be efficient they must all operate as a team with egos kept firmly in check; otherwise the team will be courting disaster on a daily basis.
10. The final thing that will result in an inefficient team is a lack of strategic approach and supplier relationship management. For the team to be effective they need to operate strategically and realise that this is the only platform that they should operate from. If you withdraw this approach then the purchasing team will simply wither on the vine.
Achieving all these steps and approaches will result in a completely inefficient purchasing team and the end result is achieved!
Jul
16
10 Benefits Of A Global Supply Chain
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Although the global supply chain is not without some drawbacks in terms of suppliers being far away and having to deal with the exchange rate etc, the positive benefits that a global supply chain can bring far outweigh any potential drawbacks. Here are the top 10 benefits of having a global supply chain, but there are many, many more!
1. As opposed to a poorly organized supply chain a global supply is extremely competitive and so you can obtain a really good price for supplies, that will all be produced to excellent standards, without even having to search widely. Excellent products completed to the highest standard of quality controls can be sourced quickly and efficiently.
2. A global supply chain therefore brings with it benefits in terms of companies who are involved in a global supply chain being able to shave their costs right down and therefore ensure the economic viability of their business. Global supply chains are often one of the first methods used for Supply chain cost reduction activities
3. The global supply chain means that businesses within countries which traditionally did not operate to high standards have had to ‘up their game’. Companies that operate within developing countries or those such as India and China, know that if they do not come up with the goods, there are a myriad of other businesses that will. This means that there is a real incentive to get things right, first time and all the time!
4. If you have sufficient contacts and suppliers internationally, then you can really reduce the amount of stock that you have to retain, which means that you will save costs in terms of storage/thefts/transporting goods etc. These costs can add up, so this certainly helps sharpen the competitive edge that comes with a global supply chain.
5. The global supply chain also makes the securing of almost any item easy, since somewhere in the world it is probably being produced or manufactured. Historically any item that was not a standard item, from a standard range could take ages to produce. Now it can simply be bought from the country where it has been made.
6. The global supply chain really does operate on a 24/7 basis, simply because of the time differences in different countries. So there is a sense that the chain never sleeps; it is constantly on the go and people are working to meet the supply chain requirements on different continents and at different times.
7. Operating a global supply chain also brings with it new opportunities for the markets. If you are sourcing items from China, then it is feasible that you may wish to look at other markets that you may be able to tap in to since you have already established sources in China. It is almost as if once a company has taken the first step to source supplies globally, new markets and opportunities follow.
8. One of the most interesting factors of the global supply chain is that we can learn from others! Business is done differently in different parts of the world and we are able to learn new ways of doing business, new production methods and new distribution methods, if we keep an open mind and have a willingness to learn.
9. A global supply chain has to be flexible or it will simply implode, but given that any supply chain has to be flexible, with a global supply chain the flexibility is always given a higher priority and as such, flexibility within the chain is maximised, allowing for the chain to be as effective as possible.
10. The final benefit of a global supply chain is that if you are within this kind of framework then you have a chance of success and being able to even grow during the economic downturn. If you are not part of it, then your chances of survival are lower. So being in it is almost not a choice and the benefit (of survival) is a difficult thorn to grasp, but if your company is not operating within a global supply chain framework, you are well behind those who are!