1999 Purchasing Today Article Index
Term selected: Purchasing Strategies

A valuable reference tool, the Article Index is a comprehensive list of articles that have appeared in Inside Supply Management® (formerly Purchasing Today® and NAPM Insights®) magazine. Articles are organized by subject for easy locating and study.

• "I'm Convinced: You've Got Value!"
  Mary Siegfried Dozbaba, May, Vol. 10, No. 5, p. 44. (Exam Alert: )
  

  So how easy was it for you to catch your CEO's attention? Several purchasing and supply professionals share how they "sold" their value and improved profitability for the organization.

• A Meeting of the Minds
  Peg C. Neuhauser, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 6.
  

  Negotiation is a meeting of different mindsets — different groups with their own needs, requirements, expectations, and beliefs.

• A Time for Renewal
  Eladio Delannoy, C.P.M., A.P.P., July, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 14.
  

  It might be time to renegotiate your major contracts. Take the following steps.

• Agreeing on the Difference
  Martin J. Carrara, J.D., C.P.M., December, Vol. 10, No. 12, p. 8.
  

  Understanding the difference between agreements, contracts, and trading partner agreements will help prevent legal ambiguities.

• All Relate to Win-Win!
  Dianna H. Wentz, C.P.M., A.P.P., December, Vol. 10, No. 12, p. 10.
  

  Building a relationship when negotiating involves understanding and discussing what the other party wants to achieve.

• Are We in or Out?
  Mary Siegfried Dozbaba, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 54.
  

  Those in business predict that outsourcing will continue its strong position as a strategic opportunity well into the next century. They also suggest that once a function is outsourced it's sometimes harder to bring it back in-house.

• Are You Final-Customer Focused?
  Mary Siegfried Dozbaba, July, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 56.
  

  Discover the importance of knowing your organization's final customer. No one is arguing the fact that it's the job of marketing and/or sales to understand, research, and have ongoing contact with the end customer — whether commercial or consumer. However, marketing and purchasing and supply increasingly are working more closely in an effort to meet the varied needs of the final customer.

• At the Drawing Board
  Lori A. Sisk, C.P.M., A.P.P. and Roberta J. Duffy, May, Vol. 10, No. 5, p. 63. (Exam Alert: )
  

  From the medicines you take, the packages you ship, and the carpet you walk on, the impacts of purchasing and supply efforts in new product development abound.

• Avoid the Transaction Cost Trap
  Robert Mann and Randall Garber, January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 21.
  

  Transaction costs rise when purchasers compete for the same goods in an inaccessible market, or when suppliers heighten perceived "differences" for their goods charging a premium for such differences.

• Bridging the Credibility Gap
  Ted Williams, February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 6.
  

  Cost saving strategies function effectively when they are well-substantiated to suppliers.

• Buying for the Aftermarket
  Mark S. Miller, C.P.M., CIRM, November, Vol. 10, No. 11, p. 60. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Aftermarket purchasing further challenges purchasing and supply professionals to meet the demands of their customers.

• Catch Up with the Express Mail Industry
  Douglas Kennedy, C.P.M., February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 40.
  

  A handful of providers are offering a wide range of services from which organizations can pick and choose.

• Clean Up Your Act
  Michelle B. Knepper, C.P.M., A.P.P. and Mark K. Lindsey, March, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 44.
  

  Purchasing and supply professionals need to assess overall needs of the organization before hiring a janitorial services supplier.

• Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are
  Nandita Ravulur, February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 53.
  

  Work closely with your key suppliers to discover hidden inventory costs.

• Consider Requesting a Duty Transfer
  Mark Howell, May, Vol. 10, No. 5, p. 12. (Exam Alert: )
  

  For cost, time, and resource savings, sharing or shifting responsibilities to your supplier may be the answer.

• Creative Packaging Procurement
  Robert J. Dempsey, C.P.M., October, Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 46. (Exam Alert: )
  

  The packaging industry offers a world of opportunity for the purchasing and supply professional. This enormous industry - in the consumer packaging industry alone, U.S. beverage containers are expected to top 217 billion units by 2003, according to the industrial market research firm The Freedonia Group, Inc. - is very customer focused and driven by technology to improve value to its customers. Purchasing and supply professionals are eager to explore new avenues in terms of purchasing packaging, as it can affect an organization's overall image, safety record, product quality, environmental consciousness, and cost competitiveness. To maximize success, purchasing and supply professionals need to investigate new technologies, new buying strategies, and new types of relationships within the packaging industry.

• Critical Supplier Relationships: Generating Higher Performance
  Mary Siegfried Dozbaba, February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 22. (Exam Alert: )
  

  In today's business world an increasingly large percentage of a product's value comes from suppliers, prompting business executives to realize the value in building and sustaining strategic relationships with critical suppliers. The traditional price-based relationship with key suppliers is changing, giving way to long-term relationships based on total cost, trust, flexibility, innovation, and quality. And these effective relationships with critical suppliers are helping organizations positively impact customer satisfaction, financial performance, innovation, and organizational growth.

• Designing the Rescue Package
  Patrick S. Woods, C.P.M., A.P.P., CPIM, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 10. (Exam Alert: )
  

  A supplier buyout may not be in the cards, but preparing for one is the best way to avoid a crisis before it comes your way.

• Doing Things the Write Way
  Ernest G. Gabbard, J.D., C.P.M., CPCM, October, Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 8. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Contracts
  How many of us have read contracts that were mind-bogglingly complex, and may have even seemed to be written in a foreign language? While it's important to recognize that a contract represents the legal obligations of the contracting parties, it's equally important to balance this with the necessity to make it comprehensible - maybe even simple.

• Don't Look Now, but Knock, Knock
  Tim Baker, C.P.M., CPIM, Gary L. Hopper, C.P.M., A.P.P. and Ted V. Freese, C.P.M., CPIM, June, Vol. 10, No. 6, p. 14.
  

  Who's there but your sales organization counterpart displaying the latest initiatives.

• Don't be Afraid to Dig Deep
  Chuck Stefanosky, C.P.M., November, Vol. 10, No. 11, p. 10. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Asking the right questions, of the right people, can help you get the most out of supplier reference checks.

• Electing Your Representative
  Thomas J. Maher, C.P.M., CPIM, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 8. (Exam Alert: )
  

  If you're willing to pay the costs, an overseas sourcing representative can be your eyes and ears in a foreign land.

• Great Ideas From Within
  Mitchell A. Millstein, CPIM, C.P.M. and R.O. McLaughlin, C.P.M., March, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 6. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Look to your internal customers for cost-cutting ideas.

• Hand it to The Users
  Eladio Delannoy, C.P.M., January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 8.
  

  Communication, education, and training are key elements to ensure the final contract is followed by your internal users.

• Integrated Supply Successes
  James V. Veronesi, Rodney A. MacLea and Robert P. Zigas, Ph.D., C.P.M., February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 60.
  

  New twists on traditional supply models are bringing high rewards to purchasing and supply professionals. A few practitioners tell their story.

• Is Your List on the Same Page?
  Robi H. Bendorf, C.P.M., April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 8.
  

  Develop a "come-to-know" checklist to enhance the success of your international purchasing process.

• It's Time to Power Up
  Ricardo R. Fernandez, P.E., C.P.M., February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 10.
  

  Need to review your suppliers' agreements? Here are a few tips to help you measure and rework them.

• Keeping Your Cool in a Crisis
  Nandita Ravulur, May, Vol. 10, No. 5, p. 27. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Has the Asian economic slump turned up the heat on your global purchasing plans? Find out how organizations cope when a crisis erupts in their suppliers' corner of the world.

• MRO: Easy as ABC
  Mark Brown, C.P.M., A.P.P., January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 38.
  

  Nickel and dimed to death with transaction costs? A third-party provider for non-value tasks could relieve some of the burden.

• Measure Up!
  John S. Bourman, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 58.
  

  The tangible and the intangible, the subjective and the objective, you can measure all kinds of agreements.

• Money on the Table
  Liz Young, January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 55.
  

  Year after year, your organization sets another 10 percent cost reduction goal. Year after year, you meet that goal. Was there really that much money on the table the first time around?

• Multinational Momentum
  Mary Siegfried Dozbaba, September, Vol. 10, No. 9, p. 36.
  

  Is your organization preparing to operate outside the United States? Don't be surprised if such an action takes place. With the same flurry of activity as today's business mergers, organizations are becoming multinational and purchasing and supply needs to be proactive and prepared.

• Not a Sentimental Journey
  Kevin Williams, C.P.M., July, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 8.
  

  After concluding a solid supplier selection process, the biggest challenge might come in meeting with internal users to inform them that their sentimental favorite didn't make the cut.

• Not on My Tab, You Don't
  Mark A. Crowder, C.P.M., A.P.P., September, Vol. 10, No. 9, p. 6. (Exam Alert: )
  

  You're preparing to enter into negotiations. Your supplier has provided some costing details and the numbers look legitimate at first glance. But your end cost is still too high. As you reflect on the supplier's detailed quotation, do you understand the section dealing with overheads or fixed expenses? Traditional cost accounting methods advocate assigning these costs as a percentage of direct materials or direct labor. So, depending on the allocation method your supplier uses, you may wind up subsidizing an operation or process that has no direct tie-in to your particular purchase. You can, however, make your supplier rethink this allocation.

• Orchestrating a Successful Cost Management Program
  Mark Nothaft, October, Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 33. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Today's intensely competitive business environment demands that organizations become experts at developing low-cost, high-quality products and services that have the functionality customers expect. Cost management can help.

• Outsourcing: A Key to Logistics Cost Reduction
  Daniel R. Sudnick, Ph.D., December, Vol. 10, No. 12, p. 46.
  

  Through business process analysis, organizations may not only be capable of reducing logistics costs, but also redefining the global direction of their organization.

• Restructuring for Innovation
  Cherish Karoway Whyte, October, Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 22. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Supply advantage, intelligent innovation, ideation: These catch phrases embody purchasing and supply's latest, greatest task and potentiality — harnessing innovation at all levels of the supply chain to wow customers and stockholders.

• Selecting the Prime Cuts
  Rick Carr, January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 10. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Trimming the supplier base requires a hard look at numbers and your strategic sourcing needs.

• So There's a Difference?
  Sara L. Vinas, J.D., September, Vol. 10, No. 9, p. 46.
  

  Frequently as purchasing and supply professionals, we face the challenge of shifting from known to unknown activities which have a similar look and feel, but which at the heart of the transaction contain some fundamental differences. For example, consider the differences between a standard statement of work (SOW) for a particular part or material versus a SOW defining professional services. They both contain a statement of work defining supplier performance, yet their differences need to be understood before you can successfully proceed in this area of negotiation.

• Strategic Moves Across the Board
  Roberta J. Duffy, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 36.
  

  It's complex. It's difficult to define. It's even overwhelming. The concept of a world-class purchasing and supply organization requires alignment, strategy, and a great deal of self-examination.

• The ABCs of "Fair" Costing
  Lisa M. Ellram, Ph.D., C.P.M., CPA, C.M.A., March, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 39. (Exam Alert: )
  

  An in-depth study of your organization's and supplier's cost systems can lead to effective implementation of activity based costing.

• The Euro Launched: Now What?
  Cherish Karoway Whyte, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 48.
  

  Europe's new currency takes a beating in the markets, but its long-term outlook reveals a more lucrative European supply base for U.S. purchasers.

• The Numbers Game
  John A. Thompson, February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 56.
  

  Need a specialized financial service, or just need more resources for your core competencies? Outsourcing some aspect of the finance function might be for you.

• The Office Products Buy: Take a Strategic Approach
  Duane Harrington and Peter Stille, C.P.M., CPA, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 45.
  

  Knowledge and time are the means to a successful end when sourcing for office products suppliers. For the purchasing organization, this can mean a 10 to 15 percent cost reduction.

• The Procurement Card So Far
  Stephanie A. King, July, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 51.
  

  Chief among the efforts to increase card use is a concerted effort requiring employees to use purchasing cards rather than standard purchasing tools.

• The Smart Card: Propelling it Forward
  Marilyn Lester, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 40.
  

  Recent developments in the smart card industry indicate some growth. The only question remaining is "When?"

• Trailblazing
  Roberta J. Duffy, April, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 45. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Adapting to trends and accommodating new technologies and philosophies, today's leading-edge purchasing and supply professionals are blazing trails in new directions.

• Trends in Distribution: Expect More
  Marilyn Lester, October, Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 50.
  

  To say that change has overtaken the distribution industry - OEM, MRO, and retail - is an understatement. Several forces have converged to provoke these changes; particularly advances in supply chain management, electronic commerce, and technology. Still other catalysts for change include a trend toward outsourcing, increased globalization, imperatives to lower total costs, the need to reduce risk, and the consolidation of fragmented markets. To answer the challenge of change, distributors will have to concentrate on providing more value-added services to their customers including quality systems, supplier-managed inventories, just-in-time inventories, consignment inventory programs, consolidated monthly invoicing, global shipping and delivery capabilities, and electronic commerce opportunities.

• Trust ... But Verify
  Douglas Sevedge, C.P.M., September, Vol. 10, No. 9, p. 8. (Exam Alert: )
  

  No need to rely on gut instinct when tools abound for supplier price analysis.

• We're In This Together
  Lorrie K. Mitchell, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 10. (Exam Alert: )
  

  You have an ally in supplier evaluation. It's your internal customer.

• Where "C" is Above Average
  Tom Schroeder, C.P.M., CPIM, August, Vol. 10, No. 8, p. 12. (Exam Alert: )
  

  Several strategies exist for successful supplier selection. Use the "Five Cs" to help you keep the steps in mind.

• Where Do They Get The Money?
  Thomas E. Hendrick, Ph.D., February, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 8.
  

  By the member, by the volume, or by the variable component, consortiums are funded in a variety of ways.

• With Whom Do You Connect?
  Roland Chow, January, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 50.
  

  In the fast-changing world of telecommunications, how do you get the best deal for your organization?