by Janice Marquardt | Dec 23, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Definitions
In many households this time of year, ‘tis the season of decorated trees and wreaths; stockings and candles. Some homes receive the royal treatment: garlands up and down every staircase, fully coordinated trees in multiple rooms, and a perfectly arranged nativity...
by Janice Marquardt | Oct 14, 2025 | Contracts, Processes, Uncategorized
There are multiple reasons to attend conferences: networking, being visible in your professional community, and especially learning new things. If you’re like me previously in my career and can’t attend conferences for various reasons, I can bring back at least a...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 5, 2025 | Savings, Supply Chain Career
Like any industry, procurement has its lingo. RFP, RFI, RFX, bids, suppliers vs. vendors (that’s a whole other topic!), maverick spend, cost avoidance, tail spend, e-auction, TCO, punchout, and a myriad of other things. But presiding over all of these other terms:...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 15, 2025 | Supply Chain Career
Like most supply chain/procurement professionals, I definitely didn’t start here. I was going to be an engineer, climbing the expected chain from Design Engineer to Project Engineer to Engineering Manager and then maybe VP of Engineering. It was going to be organized,...
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...