Soar With Eagles and Be One

“Don't be like a parrot; be like an eagle. A parrot speaks but can't fly high, whereas an eagle is silent and has the willpower to touch the sky”!

Eagles are the people of wisdom, the people who soar. I like to call certain people "Eagles" because they set the bar and the mark for others to aspire and follow. Find the eagles and ask them to help, coach, mentor and share their knowledge. True knowledge becomes wisdom when it is shared and then shared again. Eagles share their wisdom. If you want to be an eagle you have to hang with the eagles. Eagle school runs 7 days a week and 365 days in a year. It's not really school but something that has been earned through life learning and excellence in everything they do.

When you ask for an eagles help they will always be open and spend time with you. If they won't they are not true eagles, because eagles get what giving is all about and helping others to take flight and eventually soar is their true goal. They want others to succeed and that gives them the wind beneath their wings. When Eagles are pestered by crows they just fly higher to where the crows can't fly. When a storm is heading in an eagles direction they head straight into it and catch the draft to soar even higher.

Eagles understand that asking good questions and listening is a true gift to others. Like the parrot in the quote above, don't just spend your time talking or squawking. A great question and silence or listening is one of the greatest gifts of all. This is what all eagles know. Asking good questions and listening shows interest. This interest shows you care. The eagles will always find out what is important to you, because that is the attitude of gratitude and why eagles are eagles. Gratitude is just their way of travelling or "soaring”!

(Inspiration from Tim Cork)

Warehouse safety for a mature workforce

Article taken from MM&D magazine.

I found this point interesting,
".....But data from the US reveals workers over 55 generally do not see an increase in age-related safety performance issues. In fact, older workers have fewer avoidable absences, a lower turnover rate and fewer work-related accidents. The highest accident and absentee rates are among young workers."

Like to read more about this?

Japan’s recovery offers opportunities for auto parts

This is a great opportunity for Canadian auto parts suppliers to demonstrate to the Japanese OEMs that they are onside, and supportive, even if they aren’t going to get ongoing business,” says APMA president Steve Rodgers.

There are currently some supply shortages that are proving to be challenging, such as mass airflow sensors. Rodgers says the Hitachi plant in Japan, which likely has 60% of the world supply, was heavily damaged.

To read more about this click on the Title.

The Future of ERP

According to CGT (Consumer Goods Technology) the top ERP providers are:

SAP
Oracle
Microsoft
Infor Global Solutions (Baan)
Lawsons

When IDC Retail Insights Group Vice President Bob Parker was asked what trends he forsees in ERP requirements he highlighted amongst other things the following:
“ Some of the trends we identified last year are ongoing, including more virtualization and cloud-based ERP, as well as integrated analytics. …..Mobile access is also an increasing trend, though sometimes the interest here is more hype than reality-driven. We caution companies to be practical in their adoption of mobile devices and apps,"

I agree that cloud computing is the way of the future and those not moving in that direction are in for a shock!

He continued to add:
“Lastly, there will be a group of companies who will want to deliver ERP to their organization on top of a private cloud infrastructure so that “virtual instances” can be provisioned. For example, the Wal-Mart team at a large consumer goods company may have its own virtual instance that accommodates Wal-Mart-specific processes while staying true to corporate information standards.”

Hmm! Interesting !

A Good Reason why SaaS is GREAT!

Have you ever goy rid of a software product because it just couldn't deliver? With on-premises upgrades constantly being delayed for internal budgetary reasons, they simply never happen, leading to outdated ‘legacy’ software in production. I know all about this! And very often, it just doesn’t compare well to the latest versions of competitive products. But does it make sense to start over from scratch?
The biggest breakthroughs with SaaS is that upgrades are expected to be part of the service. This gives the vendor the opportunity to keep the very best software always at your disposal. And since you are paying your subscription frequently, there’s plenty of opportunity to remind them of any issues you may have with their service.
Just think when you called your vendor for help on a critical bug only to be told that it's already fixed in the next version? But with SasS you're always running the best and latest e and you'll most likely never hit that bug in the first place. That is real value. Upgrades become a standard feature of the software, leading to simpler and much less risky upgrade events and they have to because they are performed on the vendor’s dollar. So this is what you can expect:
- Full value from your software investment if upgrades are applied continuously.
- All software has bugs... continuous upgrades help you avoid them by having access to the most corrective content.
- With SaaS, you never have to wait for your IT staff to upgrade in fact you don’t really need technical IT staff
- All great SaaS companies include upgrades as part of your normal fee and no hidden charges.
Take hidden risks and fear out of upgrades by using SaaS solutions.

China's Hidden Risks

China is such a frequent focus of speculation and comment that it sometimes seems that many of the challenges of doing business there must be mitigated because everything is so thoroughly documented at the moment. Whether that’s true or not, a CPO based there recently made it very clear during an interview how important it is right now to look behind the hype to get an idea of what’s really going on.

He related that “Things are more dynamic here – word travels fast. Business travels fast. Suppliers are faster and more optimistic than those in Europe. People in the west often say no to opportunities because they’re not instantly feasible or they’re not as hungry. No is not a response you hear over here. A contemporary of mine said it best: ‘everything is possible, everything is negotiable.’”

“It’s so important to put the optimism aside for a short while and make sure the right processes are in place,” he argued.

Going back an article from a Procurement Leaders magazine issue from April 2009 concerning the prospects for the Chinese economy during the global downturn, the general feeling was that suppliers’ attitudes were changing as the economy saw exports reined in and some sectors begin to seize up, following on from a period of rapid growth. They were becoming more flexible, the article noted.

And much of that rings true today, especially as China is supposedly about to post its first trade deficit for several months – there are plenty of reports of suppliers in China hungry foreign business and, indeed, offering an increasingly sophisticated and well-recognised service.

Over on the Spend Matters blog Jason Busch recently posted an interview with Lisa Reisman of MetalMiner on the sourcing situation in China. Her response conveyed this note of caution that chimed with our CPOs concerns. She said: “I think what suppliers and everyone close to China are starting to see is that we're dealing with yet another bubble market. A frenzy of investment has led to a lot of buying.”

“Supplier viability could still be a very real issue in certain markets,” she warned.

It’s long been difficult to gauge quite what is happening or will happen to this dynamic economy. But one thing does become clear, there are huge risks awaiting those not prepared to look beyond this veneer of optimism among suppliers to learn more about the markets they are sourcing from.

Taken from Procurement Today

What is Your Intention?

Intention is a word that is used by many people when they are explaining their goals and plans for the future, but intention is just not a good philosophy.
Either you are going to do something or not. It is like the word TRY. This is another word we need to eliminate. You take action or you don't. There is no middle ground..

Think of some of the famous people you know: Dr. Phil, President Obama, Oprah, Bill Gates or any really successful people don’t say try or intend they just do it. They either succeed or don’t but they do it!
So what is YOUR intention?

We worry about the prices of Gold and Silver yet John Clemmow of UBS made this statement a few weeks back "Rice is the new iron ore, and corn the new gold." Why?
He explained that as the global population swells to 9 billion by mid-century,  that food supply shocks IS hitting us now and while food shortages have been around as long as time immemorial never has there been such a demand for basic foods. Consider what has happened in the last few months.   We experienced the droughts in Australia that did not impact us much in North America, then the floods in Pakistan that in days destroyed staple foods; consecutively there were the heat waves around the Black Sea where Russia an exporter of grain put the breaks on exports sending prices souring.

Wheat, prices rose to some 75% since June in a matter of days,as the Black Sea region suffered through the most severe heat wave in nearly half a century. Did Gold or Silver or even oil perform at that rate?

The affected area ordinarily produces roughly one quarter of the entire global output. Consequently, experts forecast Russia's harvest well shy of the 75 million tonnes consumed domestically. Moscow has since implemented a ban on grain exports until late 2011.

Then there is Corn, that is up more than 40% since June as global stock levels, with a "stock to usage ratio" of a paltry 12%, dipped to their lowest levels in almost four decades. Unfavorable weather patterns in the US kicked the rally off, but it was the revelation that China, feeding the fastest growing middle class on the planet, imported a record 432,000 tonnes in August that really kicked it into overdrive.

Now the US diverts just a little over one third of its entire crop production to ethanol for fuel, which lead one commentator to declare the program a blatant act of "unsustainable, government-sponsored food burning."

To add to this we have heard about the rising cost of Coffee.  Prices have risen by over 40% since September, 2010.

What is all this about.  Maybe our attention should be watching the commodity markets and look for growth and potential there instead of Gold and Silver.   Remember the story of King Midas that every thing he touched turned to gold, but also remember that he could not eat  gold so where do our priorities lie?   Maybe the lesson is that we need to literally watch  our “food” supply chain more and how to better our environment through real ‘sustainable supply chain’ methodology that just giving lip service to it.

Is China still the place to be in?

A report by Credit Suisse said the vast majority of U.S. and European companies in China are expecting a "margin hit" over the next 12 months and fear they will not be able to pass on the costs to consumers, with the biggest worries in electronics, clothing and retail. Why?

Rising wage and production costs in China are eating into the profits of Western companies and may soon set off an exodus of multinational companies to cheaper locations.

In May General Electric, said it had plans to shift production of its hybrid water heater from China back to Kentucky next year after securing lower wages from U.S. workers. The company cited the narrowing pay gap, lower transport costs and shorter delivery times.
Pay in the industrial hubs of the Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas are much higher and likely to rise further after a wave of industrial disputes at Foxconn, Honda, Toyota and Omron.

Does/ it mean that manufacturing will return to North America? Maybe

Credit Suisse's survey of executives found that 55% of foreign firms in China could relocate plants to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia or other low-cost regions relatively easily, though it would be costly.

I guess only time will tell. If we can last long enough.

Read more:

The State of the US Economy

The Bloomberg report:

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc.'s business barometer rose to 62.3 this month, exceeding the forecast of economists surveyed which anticipated the measure would drop to 56. The June reading was 59.1 and figures greater than 50 signal expansion.

The worst US recession since the 1930s was even deeper than previously estimated, reflecting bigger slumps in consumer spending and housing, according to the Commerce Department's annual revisions also issued today.

The world's largest economy shrank 4.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, compared with the 3.7 percent drop previously. Household spending fell 1.2 percent in 2009, twice as much as previously projected and the biggest decline since 1942.

Consumer Slowdown

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, rose at a 1.6 percent last quarter, compared with a 1.9 percent the previous three months that was smaller than previously estimated. Job gains have been slow to take hold, curbing household purchases.

The economy lost 8.4 million jobs during the recession that began in December 2007, the biggest employment slump in the post-World War II era. So far this year, company payrolls grew by 593,000 workers, according to Labor Department figures earlier this month.

Americans are torn about whether the federal government should focus on curbing spending or creating jobs, the poll conducted July 9-12 shows. Seven of 10 Americans say reducing unemployment is the priority. With more than half saying the deficit is "dangerously out of control."

The US government owes more than it can pay. When a debt cannot be paid by the borrower, someone else must pay. Typically, it's the lender who pays when the borrower defaults. But the US government doesn't have to default. It has another alternative, the aforementioned quantitative easing - monetary inflation, in other words. Instead of defaulting on its debts directly, the federal government can inflate them away.

Do you think Canada is immune? We too are struggling to survive. Our biggest trading partner is sick and we don't have the medicine to help.

The Story of STUFF!!!!!!!!

So Your thought that China was your outsourcing solution? Think Again!

Excerpt from the Toronto Star of June 8, 2010.

Suddenly, strikes are surging across China as poorly paid workers — the engine of China’s economic miracle — are demanding a bigger share of the enormous wealth the country is earning from its booming export-driven economy.

Last week much of the country’s attention focused on a strike at a Japanese-owned Honda factory in southern China — for which Chinese authorities allowed rare and open reporting. Workers there won a 24 per cent pay hike.

Foxconn responded with a 30 per cent wage increase – and announced a further 70 per cent Monday. But few in China heard about the clash in Pingdingshan — or more than 15 other strikes that spilled into the streets of China in May.

Crothall, whose organization tracks labour issues inside China, confirms that China is experiencing a noticeable surge in strikes.

“Coming out of the economic downturn last year, workers were probably more willing to bide their time and not rock the boat,” he observes. “But now they’re seeing the economy booming again and workers who are paid low wages are asking questions and demanding better compensation.”

My Comments:

SO if anyone thinks that China is a safe and secure haven for cheap products. It might have been in the past but think again. People cannot be exploited all the time. The tide is changing in China and other far eastern countries. The west by moving manufacturing jobs to east virtually killed the’ goose that lays the golden egg’. Well the goose is now starving to death but not quite dead yet. Unemployment in the west was the result of moving our manufacturing jobs to the east but it was the west and North America in particular that gave the east and China in particular the boost of kiss of life. Now the west can no longer afford to buy from itself let alone the east, so both parties suffer and that is why China has to stimulate her own economy to take up the slack, but that cost money and who is going to pay for it. Yes the likes of Honda and Foxconn and eventually all the other manufacturers. Eventually the surviving companies will have to move their operations back to the west and start to rebuild or revive and re-stimulate the ‘goose’ so as to start laying some golden eggs by providing satisfying and rewarding manufacturing jobs again. But time is running out. The goose is dying and needs immediate attention.

What is SaaS all About?

We are becoming more and more familiar with the key benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Excellent experience.
• Very productive.
• Rapid implementation and optional higher quality deployment
• Minimal upgrade hassles
• Access to the “always-on” regardless of location
• Subscription pricing
• Anytime scalability and dynamic capacity
  
  

I know as I have just completed implementing PackManager by NuLogy and it is great!

What is the Carbon Footprint All About?

Sustainable development, carbon footprint, global warming, cap and trade, Kyoto, green this, green that. Who hasn’t seen, read and heard article after news report after blog, talking about how we are wrecking the environment and that things need to change. Is it really that big a deal?
Well, let’s think about what has been happening;

• Glaciers and polar ice caps have been retreating at an alarming rate and scientists are predicting that the arctic ice cap will melt by 2020 (if not earlier)
• Sea levels have risen between 4 and 10 inches since 1990 as a result of the melting polar ice caps
• We’re seeing Increasingly violent storms. 35 years ago, 1 in 6 tropical storms were considered to be major storms, in recent years, 1 in 3 are major storms.
• Increasing floods and droughts
• Scientists are constantly reporting on impact on wildlife due to global warming from polar bear problems in northern communities to changing bird migration patterns.
• Scientists are now (mostly) in agreement that global warming is happening and that there is a significant need to do something now.

People and governments are starting to listen. Many governments are setting targets for greenhouse gas reductions. People are looking for information to help them make better decisions when buying. Want to know More.....

Price are Down!

Titanium demand collapse will depress prices through 2010
TITANIUM demand has collapsed this year and the market price for benchmark aerospace ingot is almost 70% off its peak and probably at its cyclical bottom. And, according to news reports from the International Titanium Association's recent annual conference, there's little indication of a major upturn in purchasing or pricing anytime soon.
Read more.........

Molybdenum prices are sliding backwards
Spot prices dip due to uncertain demand trend from steelmakers
Although U.S. steelmaking is close to 60% of capacity, market prices for molybdenum, a key alloying smelting metal, has slipped to an average $14.55/lb this month (from $16.18 in July) and could be selling by a dollar or more cheaper next month. Read more......


Aluminum prices are being depressed by excess supply

World aluminum prices have slipped to an average 83¢/lb this month, bringing the annual average down to 70¢ (from $1.17 in 2008) as demand remains soft and global stocks are at record highs of 5.8 million metric tons

Ferrovanadium prices are slipping

The alloying metal was selling as low as $7.40/lb in April because of a serious overhang of inventory and collapsed demand from specialty steelmakers. Prices inched back up from May to August in line with reduced stockpiles caused by expanded exports and slow and gradual improvement in purchases by the domestic steel companies. Read more......

So KRAFT is planning a Cleanup?

First they make an offer on Cadbury's now they decide to have a clean up. Of what? Their supplier base. Read more about it as found in Supply Excellence.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) - a strategic approach

Most manufacturers agree SRM is important – but do not understand what it really is?
Many see it as a mechanism for monitoring and improving suppliers' performance. This contrasts with the broader definition of SRM as 'a discipline of working collaboratively with those suppliers that are vital to the success of your organization, to maximise the potential value of those relationships.

This misconception may explain why many believe SRM only starts once a contract is signed. It should, however, be used at every stage of the procurement process.
Key suppliers critical to your business should be as important as your customer. Your success demends very much on him

Before you even identify a materials need, good relations with a strategic suppliers could help by bringing innovative ideas to you. These could result in efficiency or real cash savings, product improvements or faster times to market

For example General Motors has just announced plans to split cost savings evenly with vendors that submit successful ideas on cutting the cost of car parts.

Get your existing suppliers involved as part of a cross-functional team. “
Explore how your suppliers supply chains works, especially if you’re attempting something new. Failing to do this could make things unnecessarily difficult for the supplier and potentially add in cost for your company.

Experts advise purchasers consider approaching negotiations with strategic suppliers with one eye on the implementation stage. If you pressure vendors hard for a price cut and make tough, changing demands one day then begin working with them the next, they will not be quick to forget how you treated them.

If you come out of a negotiation being aggressive, with you beating them up one day and beginning to work with them the next it’s counter-intuitive.

Finally, implement your deal and continue to work with key suppliers, forever looking for ideas and innovation that lead to improvements for you both. Remember it is a Win Win solution we want. Have mutual respect for each other

Is Supply Chain Risk Analysis a Waste of Time?

I hear that the China needs to maintain economic growth of 8% to stem widespread social unrest. Unrest! Yes! Listen to this:

When the state-owned Tonghua Iron & Steel was sold to a private group recently, 30,000 staff rioted in protest believing that the sale would lead to significant job losses.

The protests and subsequent riots led to the death of the steel factory's manager, Chen Goujun, who was beaten and later died in hospital. This is bad enough, but it comes on top of much more serious riots betwen Uighurs and Han Chinese over the labour problems at a Guandong province factory which led to more than 200 deaths. (See: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16c24528-7a46-11de-b86f-00144feabdc0.html)

So what has this to do with supply risk?

A pharmaceutical CPO said that he saw detailed risk assessment as a waste of scarce resources. He would much rather spend the time and effort on putting in place back up plans. His reasoning? That the only certainty is that a supplier somewhere will go to the wall - which particular one isn't the important issue.

The important issue is to ensure that the company has back up plans and strategies in place. On the one hand, a consumer goods company had compiled a detailed risk assessment on every single one of its suppliers, including potential risk and alternative suppliers.

It stoked a huge amount of debate, and has proved to be one of the most popular threads on the Procurement Leaders Blog.

Now if you are dealing with a Chinese (or any other for that matter) supplier and you did not worry about what was happening with and all of a sudden your order is late. What are you going to do? The choice is yours? Do you keep abreast of what is happening WHERE YOUR MAIN SUPPLIERS ARE? You should, this is part of your risk.

Watch Out for Counterfeiting!

(Summary of an article in eSpeak of ISM)

Shocking statistics:
· The FBI estimates that counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual property (IP) amounts to as much as US$250 billion a year. And, according to the World Customs Organization, that figure could reach as high as US$600 billion in lost sales every year.
· Counterfeiting and piracy have resulted in the loss of 750,000 jobs in the United States, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.
· If counterfeiting of auto parts was eliminated, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission estimates the auto industry could hire 250,000 additional workers.
· The U.S. Department of Commerce identified more than 9,000 incidents of counterfeit electronic parts in 2008.
Among the most surprising findings was a preponderance of counterfeit electronic parts incidents in the $1.01 to $10 range, followed closely by parts in the $11 to $100 range. This indicated counterfeit electronic components were showing up in small-ticket items rather than expensive parts, such as microprocessors.
According to the OET, in 2008, 50 percent of counterfeit electronic components were bought from brokers (30 percent) and unauthorized distributors (20 percent). The remaining 50 percent came from more than 13 other sources, with no single source accounting for more than 7 percent.

Action Plan:

Good supply management practice dictates buying from authorized sources:

· Assess the seller's reputation.- Does he honor warranties Does he provide technical and customer support? Even if a seller seems reputable, do you know how reputable everyone else is in its supply chain?
· Determine the seller's financial stability. Does he have sufficient financial resources to honor refunds?
· Practice quality control. Does the seller have quality control and authenticity procedures in place? particularly with regard to functionality, proper handling and storage, chemical composition and so on. Also be skeptical of random-sample testing because counterfeiters frequently “salt” genuine product with counterfeits.
· Determine the product's traceability. Can it trace the product's route back to the original manufacturer?
· Ask for documentation. Can the seller provide documentation regarding product compliance with all laws?
· Assess legal liability. Will the seller assume product liability for penalties? Remember, buying from sources not authorized by the manufacturer might absolve that manufacturer from legal liability, even if the product is genuine. And, if the product is counterfeit, there is no manufacturer liability.

Conclusion:

The best way to avoid counterfeiting risk is to buy exclusively from authorized sellers or resellers — either purchasing directly from the manufacturer or from a distributor or reseller contractually authorized by the product's manufacturer

China No Longer Worth it?

Who says? AMR Research’s newest quarterly report suggests companies seeking to build or enhance outsourcing operations may to be dropping out of China, citing high risk that is no longer worth the reward.
According to the survey, manufacturers are 2-3 times more likely to decrease sourcing in China. The survey found China contributes the most risk in 12 out of 15 categories. At the top of the list is Intellectual Property(IP) infringement, with 59 percent of respondents complaining that China poses the highest risk in the world for outsourcing. 55 percent of respondents saying China poses the most risk worldwide for product quality.
Now that oil is no longer selling at $150 a barrel, manufacturers are going back to what they used to worry about. “Supplier failure is an inherent problem in all supply chains,” she said.

Do you believe this or not? I have always believed this and predict that manufacturing jobs will return to NA.