by Janice Marquardt | Aug 12, 2025 | Contracts, Processes, Savings
There’s only one place I’ll use the word “vendor” instead of “supplier” regularly: Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI). Why? First, because this is an industry-wide and well-accepted term for having a supplier (or vendor) take charge of your stocking levels, refill used...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 29, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Processes
There comes a time in every supply chain team when a spend analysis is useful. It happens much sooner in the supply chain maturity model than most people realize, and it’s an incredibly useful thing. A spend analysis gives you a good view of your top suppliers, their...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 1, 2025 | Processes, Savings
A few months ago, I had the immense privilege of working with the team at Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) to assess the supply chains at eight small Iowa-based manufacturers. The lessons we learned and their common threads...
by Janice Marquardt | Jun 24, 2025 | Creative Solutions, e-Auctions
When I tell people e-auctions are a negotiation tool in the toolbox, they often go straight to “e-auctions are a hammer.” But a hammer doesn’t have flexibility or grace, it can basically do one thing. I say e-auctions are a chainsaw. If that evokes a slightly visceral...
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...
