Articles

Sourcing/Negotiations

12 Tips to Identify Quality Suppliers

When most buyers plan to select a new supplier, they are usually tempted to focus on the best price. But shaving a few cents off the product price is no help if the quality is below standard or the component does not arrive when you need it. Focus on quality by incorporating these 12 tips […]

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Leading a Supply Chain With Dogged Determination

Leading a Supply Chain With Dogged Determination

Matt Cantatore is chief operating officer of Ollie, a national service that sells healthful, high-quality pet food direct to consumers. Responsibilities: Oversight of day-to-day operations, including sourcing, supply chain management, fulfillment, logistics, and customer service. Also an executive team member responsible for recruiting, goal-setting, and managing the P&L. Experience: Director of operations, Blue Apron; analyst, […]

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Plastics Supply Chain Turns Off the Tap

HP Inc. and IKEA are joining the NextWave Plastics global consortium—a collaborative initiative that brings together leading companies to "turn off the tap" of plastic entering the ocean. The goal is not only to scale their own ocean-bound plastics supply chain efforts, but to also extend across industries to make it commercially viable for all, […]

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Paul A. Myerson

Going Straight to the Sourcing

Strategic sourcing, which consultants popularized in the late 1980s/early 1990s, is a supply chain management approach that formalizes the way organizations gather and use information to leverage consolidated purchasing power and find the best values in the marketplace. Strategic sourcing involves developing supply channels at the lowest total cost, as opposed to the lowest purchase […]

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Simplifying Trade Complexity

Global trade professionals experienced a great deal of disruption during 2017, with trade agreements being canceled and renegotiated, regulatory enforcement on the rise, the timeline for Brexit approaching, political instability a growing concern, and more. Networks that had been relatively stable for years are now in flux. To respond to these global market forces, companies […]

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U.S.-Cuba Trade: The Intersection of Sanctions, Sourcing, and Compliance

With the changing diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba, and expectations for the new administration to redraw U.S. policy toward Cuba, many involved in international trade are unclear of the sanctions status of trade with the island nation. The country is still embargoed and, at a practical level, for most all products, normalized […]

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Fashion Supply Chain: What to Where

While most fashion and apparel executives are optimistic about the 5-year outlook for the industry, the percentage fell from 92.3 percent in 2016 to 71 percent in 2017, a record low for the United States Fashion Industry Association’s annual Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study, which surveyed executives from leading fashion and apparel brands, retailers, importers, and […]

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Jeanine Manning

The Advantages of Strategic Procurement – Schneider Logistics

A sound strategy is important in every industry. It’s even more important than ever when the prevailing theme includes major changes to the regulatory landscape. A driver shortage, competitive rate market, and reduction in productivity will make it more difficult for shippers to secure capacity as we progress into 2018 and beyond. Strategic procurement practices […]

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