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	<title>Sourcing Innovation</title>
	<updated>2008-07-25T12:56:36Z</updated>
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	<entry>
		<title>Supply Chain Finance Slowly Takes Hold</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/25/supply-chain-finance-slowly-takes-hold.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-25:66076527-c55a-40b4-9922-a239d4e19a5b</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Supply Chain" />
		<category term="Finance" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T22:54:28Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-25T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[It was nice to see the recent article by Henry Ijams of PayStream Advisors, Inc in Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive on emerging payment and discount paradigms in the supply chain and the benefits of working capital optimization, which include:   paper reduction    liquidity injection into the supply chain    supply chain risk reduction    purchase-to-pay automation financing The point of the article is that supply chain finance is finally starting to take hold, which is good, even if most people are still confusing "discounts" with "finance".  Not that discounts are ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Design Cost Out with Akoya</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/24/design-cost-out-with-akoya.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-24:e9b52833-7ffd-4f6f-89e1-bbfa0ae38bf4</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Manufacturing" />
		<category term="Product Management" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T22:49:32Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-24T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[Last year, I gave you a formal introduction to Akoya in my post Ahoya, Akoya and their unique solution for reducing direct material spend, which was described by their co-founder and president Brett Holland in his posts on Getting Ahead of the Product Cost Management Curve and Taking Control of Cost Management for Engineered Direct Materials over on Spend Matters.  (With additional information to be found in their short paper on why analytically derived should-cost information is critical for improving product margins.) When I was back in the mostly windy city recently, I had a chance to catch up ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/23/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-23:87b81b66-0ec5-47d9-9f04-1c6dcb7d1926</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Blogologue" />
		<category term="rants" />
		<category term="Miscellaneous" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T22:48:30Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-23T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[Hopefully you caught The Brain's much needed lesson in statistics back in January, as it was very informative.  (If you didn't, you can still go back and read it. Heck, even if you did, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go back and read it again.)  The reason I'm pointing it out again is that I just noticed that Knowledge and Wharton put out a great summary of some of the key points in their article on The Use -- and Misuse -- of Statistics: How and Why Numbers Are So Easily Manipulated.   Even ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Junket Junking with James Jin</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/22/junket-junking-with-james-jin.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-22:4c469cb0-c4b6-4279-84a7-f97ce52aa1e8</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Manufacturing" />
		<category term="Marketplaces" />
		<category term="Market Intelligence" />
		<category term="China" />
		<category term="Talent" />
		<updated>2008-07-21T22:07:37Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-22T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[While I was visiting MFG headquarters in Atlanta yesterday, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a few minutes with James Jin, who runs MFG's Shanghai office (which covers all of Asia at the moment).  James, who hosted last year's webinar on Surviving China's Rapidly Changing Sourcing Tides is a rare character who not only deeply understands both the North American business world and the Chinese business world, but who also sees what's needed to bridge them into a more seamless global marketplace, which is something he does on a daily basis through MFG.  It was a ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Negotiation Pitfalls</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/21/negotiation-pitfalls.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-21:c25d3851-944e-48c6-976a-c3abdcad2a19</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Best Practices" />
		<category term="Negotiations" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T22:44:26Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-21T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[Negotiations.  Some people love them.  I don't.  My strategy is to go in more informed than the person I'm dealing with, with hard data to back me up, force a short circuit to the bottom line, and figure out if it's worth talking for any more than 15 minutes.  But still, it's part of the job description, so it's worth, at the very least, knowing what not to do, especially since one could always debate as to what one should do in a particular situation. (Don't know where to start at all? You might consider checking ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Equipment Breakdown Risk Management</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/20/equipment-breakdown-risk-management.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-20:6612a0d7-c1ff-4131-b4ea-3cde0f5d2a8e</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Risk Management" />
		<category term="Manufacturing" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T08:51:35Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-20T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[At risk of sounding like a broken record (or a scratched CD, for you young twitterers), your supply chain is fraught with risk!  However, the more risks you're aware of, the more risks you can mitigate, especially if someone gives you some tips on how to identify and mitigate those risks.  That's why I enjoyed a recent article in Industry Week by Anthony J. Trivella of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company on Mitigating Equipment Breakdown Risks.  In his article, Anthony notes that the most vulnerable part of many businesses is the equipment that keeps ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Energy Efficiency is the First Step in Energy Conservation (and Budget Savings)</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/19/energy-efficiency-is-the-first-step-in-energy-conservation-and-budget-savings.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-19:8121bc23-a637-4483-ae99-7c59f867fcba</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="sustainability" />
		<category term="Green" />
		<updated>2008-07-18T08:50:17Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-19T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[If you're a buyer of computers, electronics, machinery, automobiles, buildings, or anything else that requires power, the first thing that should be on your mind these days, with petroleum and oil prices going through the roof, is energy.  It now costs more to power an average desktop workstation for its expected life-span than it does to buy it, just as it does to power and cool your average server.  Getting 40% off MSRP on a pick-up truck that only gets 15 mpg isn't a great deal anymore if it's going to be driven 30,000 miles per year, because, ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Getting Started with Supplier Relationship Management: A Checklist</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/18/getting-started-with-supplier-relationship-management-a-checklist.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-18:249d1999-961a-4863-b37f-b4aa1cd2f331</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Best Practices" />
		<category term="Supplier Management" />
		<updated>2008-07-17T07:36:36Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-18T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[In our last post, I alerted you to a recent SIG article and some posts on Robert Rudzki's Transformation Leadership blog that had some tips on how to get started with an SRM program and recognize suppliers.  In today's post, I'm going to alert all of you checklist cherishers to an article that appeared in the Supply Chain Management Review last quarter that should also help you down the supplier relationship road.  In a 10-point Action Agenda for Strategic Supplier Relationship Management, Marc Day, Greg Magnan, and Jon Hughes put forward, as expected, a 10-point agenda for action. ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Giving Your "Ugly" Supply Chain a MakeOver</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/17/giving-your-ugly-supply-chain-a-makeover.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-17:c7b5c6f0-2e77-4493-b77d-4f98493594dd</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Supply Chain" />
		<category term="Forecasts" />
		<category term="Logistics" />
		<updated>2008-07-17T07:34:28Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-17T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[Is Your Supply Chain "Ugly"? asked a very important question - is your supply chain an "ugly baby" -- which it is if your distribution is slow, if your products are unpopular due to quality issues, and, most importantly, if your warehouse and inventory management is in shambles.  This is a very important question because a $100 million dollar company can lose $3 million to $6 million a year by the time storage costs, depreciation and disposition costs, and losses are factored in (because it can lose $1 million a year alone on an inaccuracy of just 5%!)To that ...]]></content>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<title>Packaging - The Total Solution</title>
		<link rel="alternate" href="http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2008/07/16/packaging--the-total-solution.aspx" />
		<id>tag:blog.sourcinginnovation.com,2008-07-16:d1665691-f76b-43ca-a03f-52ec1f77bb60</id>
		<author>
			<name>the doctor</name>
		</author>
		<category term="Manufacturing" />
		<category term="Product Management" />
		<updated>2008-07-15T21:55:42Z</updated>
		<published>2008-07-16T07:00:00Z</published>
		<content type="html"><![CDATA[A recent Spend Matters perspective asked a very important question: Have You Got the Total Package?  This is important not only because packaging costs money and adds to total product costs, but also costs money by adding to transportation costs - twice, and, even more importantly, can cost sales by limiting how many units of a popular product you can have on the shelf at any one time, especially if poorly designed.More importantly, as the perspective pointed out, you can save significantly if you attack the packaging category strategically, even when prices are rising across the board.  Up ...]]></content>
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