Purchasing has recently been in the spotlight as organizations have sought to manage spend tightly during the economic downturn. One aspect of the purchasing activity that is frequently fraught with internal conflict and misunderstanding is the actual process of...
QUESTION: “What should a typical procurement process like? Who should be responsible for getting approvals for items to be procured. Is it the person requisitioning the item, or should this lie with the procurement team?” — Assistant Administration Manager, Abuja,...
I had a meeting recently with two executives of a division of a large multinational business, which we’ll refer to here as Acme plc. We were discussing a change programme they intend to push through their supply chain and purchasing operations, and how I might support...
Something is afoot in the business world. Over the last year or so I have noticed an ever- increasing number of companies claiming to operate “LEAN”. Some even have ‘LEAN implementation’ as one of their strategic objectives. This trend can be seen even in the jobs...
A recent article in an engineering publication outlined some of the contemporary developments in car manufacturing, most notably that Western car manufacturers today really do very little ‘manufacturing’. Instead they have transitioned to become what might best be...
For traditional UK manufacturing companies the outsourcing of activities overseas has had a number of evolutionary impacts. Manufacturing itself has almost become ‘commoditised’ in many sectors, and is less of a core competence for many erstwhile Western...
