by Janice Marquardt | Jul 8, 2025 | Definitions, e-Auctions, Savings
On a call with a client today, they asked me how a “lump sum” bid is different from a “unit price” bid. This led to a larger discussion about risk vs. cost in a supply chain and this client team said to me, “You should write an article about this topic.” So here we...
by Janice Marquardt | May 13, 2025 | e-Auctions, Processes
Inevitably when you write a book, there are pieces you find you left out. It’s like DaVinci said – “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” Only in this case, a book is never finished, but at some point your publisher says, “It’s done now, leave it!” So as we...
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 | 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 | Jan 29, 2025 | Processes, Savings
In a deep dive training into Sourcing with a client recently, I mentioned the phrase “tail spend” and was met with a few blank looks. Tail spend is one of those procurement terms that we don’t realize is jargon, and this was a group of people new to the profession. So...
