dlandsman's blog

Despite all the attention that the global supply chain received after the tragic events in Japan last year, the global auto industry is once again scrambling around because a disruptive event has caught them off guard.

When will we learn?

If you weren't paying attention, something really interesting was published over on Procurement Leaders.  An unprecedented amount of claims on business interruption policies have caused Munich Re to demand visibility into their customer's supply chains before paying claims.

From the post:

We hate to waste time. We really hate to waste time doing something we don't like doing. Who really likes to do supplier research? I haven't met anyone yet and I have been doing this for about 10 years.

We stand on the precipice of the largest manufacturing opportunity in the United States since the Industrial Revolution. That isn't hyperbole, it is a fact. The global economics will justify manufacturing here vs there in relatively short order - and we could be well on our way to blowing it.

JoAnn Hines is CEO at PackagingDiva.com & founder of PackagingUniversity.com providing consulting services for the

Companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to predict the future.  How many sales will we make?  How much material will we use?  How will the global economic climate impact our business?  If you are in the supply chain industry you have asked yourself these questions and they have kept you up at night.  Are the suppliers I am using the right suppliers?  Have I minimized the risk to my supply chain as much as I possibly could?  We drag in all the data we can and try and model a crystal ball out of the numbers.

Being on the cutting edge of direct materials sourcing for the last decade has taught me one very important thing. Nothing hurts results more than people setting expectations based on false pretenses.

Your sourcing process, in regards to discrete manufactured components, is probably racked with inefficiency and there is a really good chance you don't know it. 

Why not?

Gov. John Lynch today unveiled a new Web site designed to better connect New Hampshire manufacturers with New Hampshire suppliers and buyers. The Web site is an outgrowth of a suggestion Gov. Lynch received from businesses during his Job Cabinet Roundtables.

(ED: The reference to Governing Dynamics is from this clip in A Beautiful Mind. Unfortunately embedding is not available in our region. The clip above uses adult themed language. If you are offended by this type of language, please don’t view the clip. Special thanks to David Heller for helping me find the clip.)