How to hire the right supply chain training company?

It goes without saying that well executed supply chain trainings are of great importance to your company. Having the right mix of purchasing and material flow topics will reduce your costs drastically while driving process improvements in parallel.

Not only the external partners but also your own internal people can contribute strongly to this success, at least when properly managed.

However, how to hire the right supply chain training company is a far less obvious “thing” you would expect in the first place.

Hereby some clear guidelines that will allow your company to make the right choices:

• Develop your own specific needs and requirements as starting point

• Make sure to only evaluate companies who do understand your own business context

• Have the right mixture of theory backed up with practical examples

• Avoid engaging “academicals” only unless you think this makes sense

• Analyze the scope of the proposed trainings and trigger the real value for your company

• Try to “tailor made” courses aligned with your specific wishes and expectations

• Introduce the absolute need for cross-functionality

• Avoid training companies with vertical expertise only

• Ask feedback on references and the value they delivered for other customers

• Rigidly analyze the possibility for follow-up and/or for (personalized) coaching sessions

• Pay the right price for quality

• Ask for the curriculum vitae of the trainer(s)

• Make sure they speak the “right language”

• Secure the presence of a strong business culture knowledge

• Avoid too lengthy sessions and go for a modular approach if required.

In times of rigid cost controls you might question the urgency and need to invest in supply chain trainings.

Learning from the right people will accelerate your process of climbing up the maturity ladder! Hopefully not too slippery...

Benefits of Procurement Trainings

Sometimes, paying the bill could make you completely crazy!


Other then the obvious external costs you are facing, you should also analyze your company from the inside. Just to be sure you are doing the right things.

Having an efficient procurement organization could make a huge difference.

Well selected and hands-on specialists can teach you the benefits of procurement trainings for daily use. Hereby some clear reasons why to reserve energy on such courses:

• They learn you a good balance between procurement techniques, team creation and overall (project) management

• They will tell you how far you are progressed on the procurement maturity ladder

• They secure not only “vertical silo” but also cross-functional analysis

• They amplify the connections between your company’s horizontal and vertical layers in terms of dependency and (mutual) impact

• These trainings are full of benchmarking intelligence allowing to “mirror yourselves” with others

• They introduce the ability to bring the content in the right business context (company/industry specific)

• They incorporate practical sessions on supplier and internal customer interactions

• These trainings provide details from basic up till the most advanced cost-reduction methodologies (reverse auctions, value analysis, value engineering, etc.)

• They show you a mixture of strategic sourcing and operational procurement

• They give transparency on matching people with required roles and responsibilities

• These trainings combine strategic development considering the ease or complexity for implementation

• They learn you the characteristics of various services and products

• They allow the development of process improvements across the whole company

• They add legal perspectives, opportunities and constraints for supplier contracts

• These trainings can teach you country specific business behavior for your purchases

• They share the specifics on low cost country sourcing

• They amplify the value of innovation out of procurement point-of-view

• They teach you how to screen and analyze your supply base

• These training guide you on specific key performance indicators to be used

• They can support further coaching after the session

• More …more …more


You can notice a lot of benefits for booking a fully advanced or modular procurement training session! Without doubt a very good investment …..

Why supply chain trainings are needed by companies

With a strong expertise on Purchasing and Flow Management you can support your company reaching the requested sky high objectives.


A competitive pricing level and guaranteed best money solution can help you to be and to stay ahead of the competition. With a strong Supply Chain you can react very agile upon the changing demands from both your internal as external customers!

However, both walk hand-in-hand with clear synergies or struggles if not done properly.
Read some questions why supply chain trainings can help your company:

• What is the sense of a very low price if you would need to wait years for your delivery?

• How do you secure the right pricing level now and in the future?

• What would be the best way to react flexible upon your customer’s requests?

• How do you anticipate reducing your supplier’s lead times?

• Do you need a golden pump when a bronze one is just good enough?

• How do you balance your business with suppliers tackled by re-sourcing activities?

• Do you have clear key performance indicators measuring inventory and its rotation?

• Which process is required for a make-or-buy decision?

• Did you ever engage various non-competing suppliers into one project?

• How do you communicate and develop and on-line bidding process?

• What is the correct pricing level for transportation from A to B?

• How do you structure excellent vendor contracts?

• What is the ideal way of streamlining your internal logistics?

• Do you consolidate your spend with other partners in industry?

• What should be the ideal lay-out and size of your warehouse?

• Is low cost country sourcing your solution for competetivity?

• How do integrate the aspect of quality into your supply chain?

• What are the golden rules and questions when dealing with suppliers?

Completely impossible for your company to be a real leader when not having clear answers to above questions!

The expected cross-functionality and the need to communicate very openly does not make live easier, emphasizing the complexity.

You could however be well armed by integrating some of below points when selecting your preferred supply chain training company:


• Check out for the right mix between theory and practice

• Make sure to call upon people who have proven field experience

• Avoid the Power-point only syndrome

• Test cases and true examples need to be integrated

• Avoid a monologue but create a dialogue by using questions and answers

• Make sure your trainer understands the business content and context

• Decline typical class-room training

• Select a partner who is well informed on recent business or functional updates

• Motivate and engage your team members for the training sessions

• Explain the clear objectives and needs for the Supply Chain sessions

• Have regular coaching “post-training”


Hope all these are sufficient arguments to make you warm for such kind of practices!

You can go to the beach and explain your friends all the details of Supply Chain Training afterwards! They will be impressed :-)

Responsibilities of supply chain firms

In order to be successful in a supply chain mission, the awarded consultancy company would need to understand “the framework”. In addition to understanding the specific context of the project they would need to know of the search for the expectations defined by the customer. A clear and sealed but flexible scope description is one of the “must haves”.
Hereby some of the responsibilities and points that supply chain firms would need to consider:

• A well thought Sales & Marketing campaign with strong emphasis on the differentiators

• Have the awareness that each project would again be completely different

• A commercial offer that reflects the high quality services and project complexity

• A well defined scope of to provided services including the objectives

• Engagement of the right and motivated people for this task

• A balanced mix of strategic and operational specialist in line with the process

• Strong respect on the agreed timelines

• Secure the support from the top management including clear communication throughout the company as empowerment tool

• Initial discussions with the board and CEO/CFO on priorities

• Assure cross-functionality to reach the bottom-line results

• Have regular reviews to discuss the process and required improvements

• Develop a measurement system and key performance indicators to track progress

• To alarm the top management in case of too strong resistance

• Ask for regular feedback on “how things are going”

• Finalize your mission and communicate results

• Open the door for future opportunities

• Develop your “lessons learned” story

• Use this reference (if allowed) for sales outreach

For the sake of continuous development and team coaching it is of key importance to receive candid comments from all involved parties! By doing so you can reshape, reinforce or maintain your “winning team” to be prepared for new challenges and opportunities!

How procurement consulting can benefit your company?

Did you ever calculate the ratio of purchased raw materials, components and services as percentage of your goods manufactured and/or sold?


Did you ever benchmark your own procurement organization on the results they obtained?

Are you sure to be able to perform good enough given new innovative trends that will determine the future?

Do you use “Voice of Internal Customers” surveys to determine the procurement department’s level of acceptance and to optimize its functionality?

Without any doubt, procurement consulting can benefit your company! Why would you need procurement consultants?

• They bring a lot of external experience within your company

• Their services can help your organization to think faster “out of the blue”

• They increase your capacity on a temporary basis

• Their insights can strengthen your organization

• They are used to swim in benchmarking exercises

• Their ideas can support your structures now and in the future

• They have an ideal mix of strategy and operational strengths

• Their experience is not only content but also context based

• They have a strong eye on the implementation path

• Their processes secure cross-functional alignment

• They use “Customer Satisfaction” as the initial starting point

• Their communication skills leave no question unanswered


However it is very clear that you would need to take sufficient time to find your preferred procurement consulting company. You can always use the above mentioned points for the development of your questionnaire!