Etiket arşivi: sourcing

Procurement Action Against Inflation

How purchasing managers, commodity managers , sourcing leaders are taking actions related to inflation and continued uncertainty.

Inflation is one of the important problem of all procurement professionals minds right now. US Inflation Rate is at 8.52%, compared to 9.06% last month and 5.37% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 3.26%. Euro area annual consumer inflation jumped to a new record high of 9.1% in August, according to a flash estimate from the EU’s statistical office on Wednesday. The figure was up from 8.9% in July, Eurostat data showed.

Inflation has forced purchasing managers, commodity managers , sourcing leaders to take action, What are these actions?

1.Finding new suppliers to lower costs

2. Establish price change mechanisms.

3.Renegotiating contracts with existing suppliers

4. Understand your major cost drivers like Direct material · Direct labour · Manufacturing overhead · General selling & administrative · Profit

Fighting against rising inflation is not an easy job. However, by creating risk management strategies and strong supplier relationships in place, procurement managers can minimize high Inflation rate risks.

Agile Sourcing

Agile methodology is a project management technique born out of software development.

Agile procurement is an altenative tool in the procurement toolbox, to be utilised for the right projects at the right time.

Agile sourcing is using of agile principles to make sourcing processes faster and more effective.

Traditional procurement works on classical rules. Most of the time,decisions are not fast and is taking time.

Traditional procurement involves fixed deliverables, extensive documentation and a comprehensive project plan.

In an agile approach, you need to have frequent communication and collaboration during the supplier selection process.

Step 1 : Build a cross functional team involving all people that have impact in the vendor selection process, and those who will have to work day to day with the future team.

Step 2: Establish common goals and inform pre-selected vendors related to new selection process.Send out the presentation agenda and guidelines in advance.

Step 3: Run the selection workshop . All vendors came with the commercial and technical team that would actually work with you and required people that could build a proposal and decide on prices.

Step 4 : At the conclusion of the presentations and after your review, present the selected supplier. The decision was taken and announced to all vendors at the end of workshop. Contract is drafted, negotiated and signed.

How Procurement Can Help Reduce Supply Chain Risk

The modern supply chain is facing some unprecedented challenges right now, and procurement is in a prime position to be able to help solve some of these issues while also reducing overall supply chain risk for their organizations. In “Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains, McKinsey Global Institute covers a lot of ground on the supply chain risk front, but also singles out a few key realities that companies are facing and the steps they can take to mitigate risk.

After analyzing 23 different industry value chains to assess their exposure to specific types of shocks, the research firm found that supply chain “shock” varies according to industry. Aerospace and semiconductors, for example, are susceptible to cyberattacks and trade disputes, because of their high level of digitization, R&D, capital intensity and exposure to digital data flows.

Some of the key procurement-related findings in McKinsey’s report include:

  • Shocks inevitably seem to exploit the weak spots within broader value chains and specific companies. “An organization’s supply chain operations can be a source of vulnerability or resilience,” it points out, “depending on its effectiveness in monitoring risk, implementing mitigation strategies, and establishing business continuity plans.”
  • Some of these vulnerabilities are inherent to a given industry; the perishability of food and agricultural products, for example, means that the associated value chains are highly vulnerable to delivery delays and spoilage.
  • Industries with unpredictable, seasonal and cyclical demand also face particular challenges. Makers of electronics must adapt to relatively short product lifecycles, and they cannot afford to miss spikes in consumer spending during limited holiday windows.
  • Other vulnerabilities are the consequence of intentional decisions, such as how much inventory a company chooses to carry, the complexity of its product portfolio, the number of unique SKUs in its supply chain, and the amount of debt or insurance it carries. Changing these decisions can reduce—or increase—vulnerability to shocks.
  • Companies’ supplier networks vary in ways that can shape their vulnerability. For example, spending concentrated among just a few suppliers may make it easier to manage them, but it also heightens vulnerability should anything happen to them.

Complexity isn’t a Weakness

Buyers should also understand that supply chain vulnerabilities often stem from the structure of supplier networks in a given value chain. “Complexity itself is not necessarily a weakness to the extent that it provides companies with redundancies and flexibility,” McKinsey points out, “But sometimes the balance can tip. Complex networks may become opaque, obscuring vulnerabilities and interdependencies.”

For example, a large, multinational company may procure goods from hundreds of different tier-one suppliers. Each of those tier-one suppliers in turn can rely on hundreds of tier-two suppliers. “The entire supplier ecosystem associated with a large company can encompass tens of thousands of companies around the world when the deepest tiers are included,” McKinsey points out.

Finally, the number of tiers of participating suppliers can hinder visibility and make it difficult to spot emergent risks. As a result, “suppliers that are dependent on a single customer can cause issues when demand shocks cascade through a value chain,” the firm notes.

Improving Resilience

On a positive note, McKinsey says that 93% of supply chain leaders are currently taking steps to make their supply chains more resilient. Some of the strategies they’re using include:

  • Building in redundancy across suppliers
  • Nearshoring their manufacturing operations
  • Reducing the number of unique parts that they use to build their products
  • Regionalizing their supply chains

“Most companies are still in the early stages of their efforts to connect the entire value chain with a seamless flow of data,” says McKinsey, which sees digital as a vehicle that can deliver “major benefits to efficiency and transparency that are yet to be fully realized.”

source: https://www.sourcetoday.com/

Global or Local Sourcing

Strategic sourcing has become an extremely important element to the growth of any company. In order to stay competitive, companies need to constantly ensure the right level of coordination between innovation, organisational efficiency, price policy and procurement.

There appears to be a growing trend towards global sourcing; companies are constantly seeking to find the next low cost procurement option in order to gain an advantage over its competitors.

However there is a second narrative; local sourcing. Recently, more and more arguments are springing up about the immense benefits associated with sourcing locally. This narrative therefore begs the question; is local sourcing not the better option?

We will take a critical look at both sourcing techniques and see which option will better serve our organization’s procurement needs

Arguments against global sourcing

  1. Transport costs

With transport costs growing and with constantly changing demand patterns, organisations need to find smarter ways to become more responsive to customer needs and in a cost effective manner.

In recent times, oil prices have seen significant rises in price; reaching an all time high of approximately US$147 per in July 2008. While the prices have recently crashed to approximately US$60, the longer term price curve is likely to continue in the upward direction and it is worthy of note that for every one dollar rise in oil, there is a corresponding increase in the costs of transportation.  Therefore, unless there are new discoveries of ways to go around this, prices of things will continue to rise.

  1. Supply chain risk

There are also several risks that are inherent in extended supply chains that are detrimental to the growth of any business. Risks such as;

  • Extended lead times
  • Exchange rate risks which affects products pricing
  • Variable lead times in the supply chain, leading to a high level of uncertainty and inconsistency.
  • Loss of control
  • Reputational risk
  1. Loss of agility

Extended supply lines usually have adverse impacts on both time-to-market for new products and the responsiveness of suppliers to customer demand changes. Organisations are unable to quickly respond to significant changes in the market due to the extended lead times. Likewise these extended lead times tend to make organizations unjustifiably exploit larger economies of scale thereby leading to overstocking of supplies which also affects their response time to market innovations.

  1. Sustainability

Global sourcing’s increased need for transport has also impacted negatively on the world’s carbon footprint. Globalization only ends up exporting domestic carbon footprint to countries elsewhere and at an increased rate

In addition

There is an increased risk in the loss of intellectual property rights as there is often less legislative protection or enforcement in developing countries

The argument for Global Sourcing

The rising trend towards global sourcing is probably an inevitable on due mostly to man’s natural instinct to trade, seek options, explore alternatives and find new ways of doing things. Coupled with recent advances in communications and technology, it appears as if global sourcing practices have only just begun to shape the procurement world.

Some of the arguments for the huge importance of global sourcing practices include;

  1. We need Global sourcing to sustain our way of life

The constant rise in world population and the diminishing rate of resources to cater for this growing population has largely impacted the need for globalization in trade (procurement) and all other aspects of human endeavor. Nations who are in deficit will continue to look to other nations where items to be procured are in surplus and are readily available.

  1. The most sustainable option may not be the obvious one

Local sourcing may appear more sustainable but there are a number of documented cases where global sourcing has been found to have less impact on the environment. Conditions such as favorable weather conditions, vegetation, technology, availability of labor and work ethics might actually have significant positive impacts on manufacturing and production thereby leading to less carbon footprints than when sparsely produced

 

  1. Innovation can provide the solution to issues arising from global trading

It is highly possible to use innovative technology to combat the environmental challenges of global trade. Significant advancements in technology in most industrialized markets have aided the creation of breakthrough energy solutions which offers a new model for bringing lasting energy solutions that are reliable, affordable and doesn’t emit greenhouse gas. This trend has facilitated the growth of global industry.

Today there are thousands of individuals and companies across the globe working hard to harvest different kinds of clean energy in order to change the way we produce goods & services and in many cases, these experiments have been very successful.

  1. Global Sourcing Promotes Peace

There is also an interesting argument that global trade promotes peace among nations. Nations that trade together are unlikely to go to war with each other.

Conclusion

In arriving at a decision on what sourcing strategy to adopt, the points listed above need to be taken into consideration when comparing between global or local sourcing strategies. Whether local or global, neither of the two are inherently right or wrong, it is only a matter of carrying out careful analysis of both sourcing techniques with respect to your company’s procurement needs and selecting that which is more suitable to meet those needs. Wrong sourcing decisions can cost you valuable time and money

E-procurement Tips

E-procurement Tips

E-procurement constantly requires extensive strategizing and figuring out new ways to do more with less amidst intense pressure to always deliver positive results. In light of this, competition is unbelievably fierce; teams are constantly changing, and there’s increasing pressure to constantly have the upper hand.

For your organization to be successful with her e-procurement strategies, it’s helpful to adopt practices that will ensure you are always ahead.

Below are 10 winning tips to consider in order to fundamentally affect in a positive way, the success of your organisation’s e-Procurement strategy:

  1. Team work

A successful e-procurement department must never work alone. Your organisation’s e-procurement department should consist of strong teams consisting employees with defined roles and responsibilities and who will work collaboratively as a unified group towards achieving the organisation’s common objective. Each member of the team should play their individual roles to ensure the success of the team. When and if this happens, success is sure to be achieved in the company’s e-procurement strategy.

  1. Analyze Data

You have to back your strategy with meaningful numbers and data. Procurement professionals must constantly analyze data when strategizing in order to guide the decision of what strategy to adopt. Likewise, the team can also use these numbers to track trends, recognise threats, spot opportunities, alter strategies and optimize opportunities for better performance.

  1. Know Your Competition

Research and Monitor your competition so that you always know who and what you’re up against and what they are always up to.   There are many ways to go about this; follow your competitors on social media, subscribe to their marketing newsletters, and regularly check their websites for company updates. You can also encourage your procurement teams to engage in conferences, webinars and seminars to help them stay ahead of the curve,

  1. 4. Manage Relationships

Good vendor relationship is an important ingredient for sustained success in any organisation’s procurement strategy. As you get to know your vendors, engage with them more and help them participate and deliver better through your procurement chain. Define what your expectations are and give the vendor a chance to explain how it will meet those expectations. Take the time to ask for several references and make sure you understand the amount of training and support that is needed throughout the entire process.

The more complex the product or service, the more important it is to identify the competence and capacity of the vendor. Smaller companies with less complex procurement needs should however not spend too much vetting every single vendor. Gathering useful information about your vendors will help you define your vendor preferences and in the long term, help you streamline your vendor list and simplify your procurement process.

  1. Maximize time and resources

Procurers and vendors alike are extremely busy people with each trying to meet the needs of many at the same time. In order to maximize everyone’s time and resources, preparation is key. Prepare in house before meetings, perform needs assessment analysis and constantly re-evaluate your relationship with your vendors.

Meet with your vendors periodically to review pricing and working conditions to make sure that they are still meeting up with required expectations.

Have someone designated to manage all your vendor issue and keep all vendor contracts, contact information, and related documentation in a single location so that whenever an issue arises, related information is easily accessed and they are resolved quickly.

  1. Save! Save! Save!

In E-procurement, all cost savings are important. Companies are quick to target big dollar spends for e-sourcing and ignore the lower cost items. Summarily, all these costs add up into something significant in the long term and if you must get the best value in your e-sourcing activities, every category of spend must be incorporated into your e-sourcing strategy.

  1. Embrace the change

A new way of doing things can sometimes be intimidating for management and staff of a company, especially when it has the potential to uncover additional savings. E-sourcing process creates a competitive dynamic that is way above the league of traditional sourcing methods and top executive in the organisation need celebrate and promote this new way of doing things. Keeping an open mind and applying e-sourcing techniques and tools in new and creative ways will ensure your program maintains momentum and remains profitable.

  1. Vendor selection should not be based solely on price.

This is very regular practise for most e-procurers and it’s easy to understand why. However, this approach to e-sourcing is surely a recipe for disaster. There are other factors that should be considered when selecting your vendors. Factors like; experience, capacity and track record of vendors providing such services. Identifying a great price should just be one step of the entire process.

   9.  Follow up on quality control.

Make sure your vendors are supplying to specifications. It’s not enough to select the least cost provider with a good reputation on paper and then go to sleep thinking that all is well. Continuous follow up on quality control with your suppliers is key to ensuring that you get what you paid for

   10. Be consistent with your results

Procurement professionals also face a constant need to be consistent. You need to find the right tools and solutions that will work for your organization. By clearly defining the organisation’s procurement objectives, delegating specific roles and responsibilities to members of the procurement teams and making the teams see how the procurement process aligns with those objectives, you’ll be able to deliver consistent results.

 

 

Steel Casting Cost Factors

Steel Casting Cost Factors

According to  Emcasting company, there are 5 factors that are affecting steel  casting part price

1-Geometry and shape of part

Internal cavities, quantity and thickness of cores, thin walls, long parts, complicated shapes, more than one parting line requirement, non linear parting lines, reverse angles and non symmetrical parts etc. will increase sand casting piece prices.

Mentioned complexities will increase casting defects such as cold lap, core replacement, flash, mismatch, raised core, deformation etc.

2-Alloy and alloying elements

The alloying element(Silicon, manganese, Chromium, Titanium, molybdenum, nickel, niobium and vanadium etc) quantity and tight  standards will also increase the prices.

3-Order quantity,yearly volume,

Low volume means higher pieces prices.

4-Required Mechanical properties and heat treatment

Annealing and normalizing are usual heat treatment of steel parts that are used to homogenizing micro structure and decreasing solidification stresses.

In some cases to achieve required properties, multiple and costly heat treatments are used. 

5-Requested tests according to safety and critical application

ASTM’s nondestructive testing  techniques used to detect and evaluate flaws in materials and objects without destroying the specimen at hand. Such tests include radiographic, ultrasonic, electromagnetic (eddy-current), X-ray, acoustic, and tomographic techniques. These tests are costly and might increase the cost of  steel  casting part price.

 

 

 

 

Iran as Low cost country sourcing

Lets take a look at the figures of Iran automotive manufacturing.

Iran has around 2 million production capacity.

Iran is one of the key player in middle east in automotive industry.

Please visit our web site to find  reliable manufacturers from Iran.

Thanks,

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