Sourcing Strategies

Which Spend Categories Too Big, Too Small In Sourcing Negotiations?

by Taras Berezowsky on May 3, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Logistics, Sourcing Strategies

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One of the biggest issues we see is companies going after everything — using the 80/20 rule, etc. — in optimizing their spend and streamlining their sourcing. MetalMiner Editor Lisa Reisman interviewed Olivier Maurandy, VP Business Development for Fullstep, to get his take on strategic sourcing best practices. In this segment, Maurandy touches on whether [...]

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Defining a Strategic Sourcing Process For Middle-Market Firms

by Taras Berezowsky on May 1, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Logistics, Sourcing Strategies

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Every company has the ol’ time-honored step/”Chevron” process for strategic sourcing. MetalMiner Editor Lisa Reisman interviewed Olivier Maurandy, VP Business Development for Fullstep USA, to get his take on strategic sourcing best practices. In this segment, Maurandy touches on how middle-market manufacturers and other companies can focus their sourcing processes. Please note: Fullstep is a sponsor of [...]

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ETM Manufacturing: Economic Outlook for Q2 – Part Two

by Taras Berezowsky on April 26, 2012

Style:    Category: Macroeconomics, Manufacturing, Sourcing Strategies

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Continued from Part One – the continuation of a Q&A with Rob Olney of ETM Manufacturing. How would you rank the biggest roadblock to achieving the profit margins you want to be seeing? For us, labor is the biggest part, then materials, then, for our customers, logistics costs. Labor’s going to be what it’s going [...]

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ETM Manufacturing: Economic Outlook for Q2 – Part One

by Taras Berezowsky on April 26, 2012

Style:    Category: Macroeconomics, Manufacturing, Sourcing Strategies

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MetalMiner recently took a look at manufacturers across the country and their economic outlooks for manufacturing for the year. We decided to follow up with Rob Olney, CEO of ETM Manufacturing in Littleton, Mass. — a metal fabricator with a $1-$2 million metal buy that supplies leading New England OEMs — to get his take. [...]

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New CME Midwest Aluminum Swap To Offer Price Stability

by Lisa Reisman on April 17, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Non-ferrous Metals, Sourcing Strategies

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Aluminum buyers will soon have a new commodity risk management tool at their disposal – the CME will shortly launch its Midwest Aluminum Swap futures contract. We view this as a huge opportunity for any buying organization sourcing semi-finished aluminum products within the United States. The contract will begin trading on April 30. Today, many [...]

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Boeing Knows: Have Disaster Plan Ready to Mitigate Supply Chain Risk

by Taras Berezowsky on April 17, 2012

Style:    Category: Manufacturing, Metal Fabricated Parts, Sourcing Strategies

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Source: The Wichita Eagle via the Seattle Times Having come across the news that a tornado ripped through Spirit AeroSystems’ production facility in Wichita, Kansas, last Saturday — the facility that manufactures fuselages for Boeing’s 737 – I asked MetalMiner’s managing editor, Lisa Reisman, a few supply chain-specific questions about the situation. Based on the photos in the [...]

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The Role of Indexes and Longer-Term Fixed Prices

by Lisa Reisman on April 12, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Metal Prices, Sourcing Strategies

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I recently came across a newsletter article with great relevance to MetalMiner readers – How to Fix Index Based Pricing – that offered up three suggestions for individuals seeking to develop a price indexing schema for purchases. The author states a hypothesis often not articulated by the purchasing organization – having a “fixed, predictable price is just [...]

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MetalMiner Advisory Services: Targeted Metals Strategy and Cost Reduction Expertise

by Lisa Reisman on April 11, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Sourcing Strategies

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MetalMiner (and our parent organization, Azul Partners) has been quietly building up a cool business the past few years. The only thing increasing faster at the moment than our revenue and cross-site traffic — we’re currently up to nearly 100,000 unique visitors and over 300,000 visits per month across our four sites — is the [...]

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