by Janice Marquardt | Apr 1, 2025 | Definitions, Processes, Savings
Back in January, we talked about tail spend and ways to reduce your spend with the bottom 20% of suppliers. But what if you don’t really know which tail spend items/suppliers to keep and which to get rid of? What else should we think about when classifying our...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 25, 2025 | Processes, Supply Chain Career
Several months ago, I published an article on what makes a utility supply chain unique. This article is the same for the manufacturing supply chain – which is a HUGE category with thousands of businesses represented. I’ve been working in and with manufacturers...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 18, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Processes
Some months ago on LinkedIn, I saw an account rep run a poll about all the questions he had to answer for a Request for Proposal (RFP), asking his fellow sales team peers about their experiences with long question lists. This struck me because my reaction was: why is...
by Janice Marquardt | Mar 4, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Definitions, Processes
Item numbers can be so powerful. An item number for a part provides a common spec/description, a way of tracking a part across time and different suppliers, and increases the efficiency of a supply chain. Item numbers, also known as part numbers, material numbers,...
by Janice Marquardt | Feb 25, 2025 | Processes, Savings
I try to stay off of bandwagons. But (you knew that “but” was coming, didn’t you?) I was at a client’s site this week reviewing category strategies, and of course the subject of trade tariffs came up. Then on a call with a different client this week, someone brought...
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...
