Your One Plan. Running around to ‘put out fires’ and reacting positively to challenging events looks good as a ‘can do’ attitude. Unfortunately, it is an ineffective and expensive way to operate; instead, try planning. Planning is based on the ‘one plan’ approach – to be truly effective, your organisation must have only one plan. But, to be successful, all affected … Read More
Know the capability of your suppliers to deliver
Your supplier’s motivation. Buying decisions can be subjective, with buyers possibly having inbuilt bias towards a particular supplier. But one of the challenging aspects of Procurement is to consider which supplier is the ‘best’ for an item or service and is the ‘best’ the right supplier? Suppliers exist in business to sell you their offer. Potential suppliers can present very … Read More
Know your supply markets for best procurement outcomes
Making assumptions is easy. We are always learning from our mistakes. When buying products or services, we can make errors based on our assumptions. My recent error was caused through not being thorough in the market research for a new office. The assumption made was that as the new office is closer to the city, communications was a given; therefore … Read More
System for a decentralised logistics services business
Support a decentralised business with one system. Discussions about the benefits of either centralised or decentralised IT systems often assume a business has a main focus, with performance measures structured to improve the focus. However, what should be the approach to IT systems if your business has an overall reason for being, but is structured to be very decentralised, with … Read More
Know the Logistics Service Providers that support your business
Global trade and increased complexity. Global trade continues to increase, together with the length of trade routes, increasing the complexity of supply chains. This in turn, increases the reliance that shippers have on their logistics service providers (LSPs), that can change the power structure in supply chain relationships. There is an old saying which states ” It is not the … Read More