Robert M. Monczka

Involving Suppliers in New Product Development

Organizations have been quick to realize that involving suppliers in new product/process/service development efforts has the potential for significant results. Numerous studies have highlighted the fact that supplier participation in product development projects can help reduce cost, reduce concept to customer development time, improve quality, and provide innovative technologies that can help capture market share. However, not all efforts are successful. Supplier integration is most successful when driven by a formalized process that considers supplier capabilities, level of complexity of the technology, and degree of risk. Leading companies conduct a formal in-depth supplier evaluation and risk assessment prior to supplier involvement on the project team.

Supply Base Strategies to Maximize Supplier Performance

Competing in the mid‐to‐late 1990s will require world‐class firms to rely increasingly on their suppliers while at the same time developing more aggressive and executive supported purchasing, supply base and sourcing strategies, because suppliers′ performance is not meeting expectations of purchasers. This finding was one result of a research effort with over 100 different firms over a five‐year period to determine the importance of the supply base, current supplier performance and emerging supply base/sourcing strategies being used by leading firms to contribute to competitive advantage. It was further determined that significant opportunities exist to accelerate development of supplier capabilities and performance. Identifies and discusses continuous improvement and breakthrough supply base and sourcing strategies to achieve supply base improvement.

Understanding integrated global sourcing

The ability to satisfy customer demands while responding to relentless competitive pressure requires creative and often complex approaches to managing a firms supply chain. Perhaps more than any other area, executive managers increasingly believe that a concept called globalization offers the best opportunity to achieve major performance gains. One area where many companies can begin to capture the benefits of globalization is global sourcing, which involves the worldwide integration of engineering, operations, and procurement centers within the upstream portion of a firms supply chain. Unfortunately, capturing the benefits potentially offered by globalization is often limited by a lack of understanding concerning how to pursue this important topic. To help overcome this limitation this article presents a five‐level continuum that illustrates the differences between international purchasing and global sourcing, examines the factors that are the most critical to global success, and concludes with a brief discussion of future global sourcing directions.

Achieving world-class supplier quality

Not long ago, most North American and European companies believed that how they influenced and managed suppliers made little diff erence in their overall performance. This perception changed, however, when global competitors showed that working with suppliers could create competitive market advantages in cost and cycle time reduction, on-time delivery, and access to product and process technology. Nowhere has the benefit of progressive supply chain practices become more evident than in supporting product and service quality, which remains a core requirement for competing successfully on a global basis. This article addresses the increasing importance of suppliers, particularly in supporting product and service quality requirements, and presents a series of questions concerning how well purchasing and sourcing activities contribute to total quality. It also provides a profile of organizations that are best positioned across four enabling areas to pursue advanced supplier qualityrelated activities.

Evolving Sourcing Strategies for the 1990s

Evolving purchasing/sourcing strategies necessary for competitive success during the 1990s are identified. The strategies, identified by purchasing executives of leading‐edge Fortune 100 firms during field interviews and a Delphi process, reflect purchasing′s growing contribution to firms′ overall competitive performance. Also included is a discussion of supply base optimisation and total quality management at the supplier as necessary prerequisites for the implementation of increasingly sophisticated strategies which follow a progression to achieving an integrated set of purchasing strategies. There is also a discussion of the linkage between corporate and purchasing strategy.

Organizational approaches to managing international sourcing

Discusses analysis of the organizational structures utilized to conduct international purchasing activities which was undertaken at 24 multinational corporations. The majority of the corporations studied had decentral‐ ized purchasing organizations and all had corporate purchasing staffs. Four basic approaches were found: (1) totally decentralized; (2) co‐ordinated; (3) totally centralized; and (4) separate international purchasing group. Within this overall framework there were several forms of staff assistance for helping operating units effectively to accomplish their international purchasing goals. This assistance included foreign buying offices, trading companies, and international staff specialists. There was also a common philosophy which indicated the necessity of worldwide sourcing.

Perceived Participation in the Budget Process and Motivation to Achieve the Budget

This research examined relationships between perceived participation in the budget process and both motivation to achieve the budget and level in the organizational hierarchy. Need for authoritaria...

Perceptions of the Formal and the Informal Organizations: Objective Measurement Through the Semantic Differential Technique

Many behavioral scientists have assumed that the informal organization has a greater impact on organizational effectiveness than the formal organization. Contrary to this assumption, this research ...

Coming into Focus: Using the Lens of Economic Value to Clarify the Impact of B2B E-Marketplaces

The U.S. Nasdaq Index has seen tremendous gains as well huge losses, in both cases lead largely by technology and e-commerce stocks. Internet and e-commerce companies are highly volatile, and a great deal of turbulence surrounds e-commerce. At the same time, considerable opportunity exists for purchasing managers to accrue value from the supply chain and to have a significant and strategic influence in the formation of business-tobusiness e-marketplaces (B2B e-marketplaces) and supply chain configurations.

Understanding Integrated Global Sourcing— A Framework and Case Study

Most firms compete in industries that demand continuous, and often dramatic, improvement across a variety of performance areas, including cost, quality, delivery, and cycle time. Exceeding customer demands requires creative and often complex approaches to managing a firm’s supply chain. One area where many companies can begin to realize a new source of benefits is global sourcing, which involves the worldwide integration of engineering, operations, and procurement centers within the upstream portion of a firm’s supply chain. For executive leaders who are under intense pressure to achieve continuous improvement, the development of global sourcing processes and approaches may well offer the next generation of performance breakthroughs. Capturing the benefits potentially offered by globalization is often limited by a lack of understanding concerning how to pursue global sourcing. To help overcome this limitation this article summarizes the international purchasing and global sourcing literature, defines the differences between international purchasing and global sourcing, details the global sourcing process and experience of a leading company, and summarizes global sourcing excellence characteristics and trends.