by Janice Marquardt | Apr 15, 2025 | e-Auctions, Processes
“The 80/20 rule always applies” is a phrase I’ve lived with so long I don’t even know where I heard it first. But I’ve definitely repeated it – to my teams, to clients, to my poor family who are no longer at all interested (if they ever were). But what is it,...
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 | Jul 2, 2024 | e-Auctions, Org Chart, Supply Chain Career
All my career I wanted to be a Vice President. Everything I did professionally drove toward that goal, including: Lateral moves from engineering to supply chain (which also had a bunch of other factors I won’t go into here) Earning a technical master’s degree, two...
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...
