Servicing SMEs Throughout Atlantic Canada
Supply Chain Management, and in particular the tasks associated with procurement activities, are often thought of as a “do-it-yourself” function by business leaders. Many organizations still believe that it is something that most people can do. After all, people buy cars, houses, and groceries, so they have years of experience in this area, right? The…
The Sales function, like many other areas of business, has undergone significant transition over the past few decades. Gone are the days of the wining and dining and long lunches to try to gain new customer business. The fact is, we are all too busy for that these days….we just want to understand whether or…
The Global Sourcing debate… a strategy that requires careful consideration and a weighing of the pros and cons. Global sourcing is not for everyone, and like most other strategic decisions, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Global Sourcing is a strategic decision that should be closely tied to overall corporate strategy. But how does the…
Strategic planning… a concept that most of us are familiar with and have probably participated in at some point in our careers. And if we haven’t actively participated in the process, we have at least been impacted by the result of it. But is the time and effort invested in creating a strategic plan a…
When it comes to warehousing and storage, many people think of these functions as a necessary but added cost centre that cannot be avoided. And although in most cases they are indeed essential to growing an organization’s business that is not always the case. Think of the added cost of a two-stage distribution system. Are…
As a Supply Chain Professional, I have had the privilege of spending my entire career in the private sector… Not that there is anything wrong with the public sector, but I’ve always taken the approach of staying about as far away from the laws of competitive bidding as I could possibly get. Why would I…
Many people outside of the Supply Chain world think of the Purchasing department as a function to simply obtain the lowest possible unit cost for the goods and services we need. Although there is some grain of truth in a traditional definition such as this, we in the Supply Chain world understand it to be…
Many people in business today are familiar with ISO, and their series of standards that have been in the marketplace now for decades. Opinions on the effectiveness of ISO vary, and most people that I talk to think of it simply as the dreaded annual audit they go through to ensure that their organization maintains…
Well it’s finally here… I think we have officially entered the Supply Chain Management era. As with most shifts in thinking in the business world, our profession started out as a new “buzz word” that people began to throw around, not really understanding what is was or what it meant. What is Supply Chain Management…
Supply Chain Management is becoming talked about more and more, and has become the common language of our profession. We once talked more with terminology such as Purchasing or Logistics, but the shift to Supply Chain terminology is becoming more apparent with the passage of time. I have even heard it referred to as “the…