by Janice Marquardt | Oct 28, 2025 | Benefits, e-Auctions, Savings
Profit Levers: Where to Find Value in Uncertain Times CEOs really do think differently. When I asked my CEO why we were doing e-auctions, he looked at me and said something like, “When times are tight, we can seek to improve our profits from one of three sources:...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 2, 2025 | Benefits, Contracts, Processes, Supply Chain Career
Are you ready for the holidays? Those of you in retail are responding, “Of course, I’ve had to be worrying about stocking up and overseas freight for weeks now. After all, some FedEx Demand Surcharges start on September 29th this year.” The rest of you might be...
by Janice Marquardt | Feb 18, 2025 | Benefits, Processes, Supply Chain Career
I haven’t been in supply chain management as long as some, but I’ve been around long enough to have some observations on common errors supply chain practitioners make. Some are things many professionals can do better (such as continually learning) and some are very...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 19, 2024 | Benefits, Definitions, Processes, Supply Chain Career
“You can have it fast, you can have it good, you can have it cheap: pick two” is a very old phrase for any purchase, and is a central tenet of supply chain work. While in a previous supply chain leadership role, my company had a major shake-up in senior leadership. As...
by Janice Marquardt | Jan 2, 2024 | Benefits, Creative Solutions
One of the often overlooked benefits of an e-Auction program is the improvement in scopes of work. This is because when any qualified supplier who can provide the scope of work can participate in the e-Auction, suddenly the answer “my incumbent knows what we need”...
by Janice Marquardt | Dec 19, 2023 | Benefits, Creative Solutions, e-Auctions
As I was on a call with a supply chain leader last week, they brought up all the common objections to e-Auctions: Too impersonal. Too transactional. Don’t like them. So I asked what they were struggling with. “Lead times are still horrible on our key commodities” was...
