Procurement Solutions for Technology Industries

Technology sounds quite impressive and complicated, no matter what type of industry you are into. Understanding the particular products and services, very often overloaded with abbreviations out of the planet Mars, might be a quite challenging task.

Capturing the drivers responsible for creating business growth is of fundamental importance when working on procurement solutions for the technological industries.

Very often such activities can only be truly understood by real specialists in this particular area although some rare exceptions do exist. You can just not expect Mister Einstein to be everywhere.

Just think about the telecom sector with its advanced electronically engineered products with relative short life-time or the chemical industry that is continuously looking for optimized molecules and manners to manufacture these. Also pharmaceuticals with ever lasting validation processes or automotive with its increased requirements for sexy, comfortable, safe and environmental friendly cars are counted amongst the more challenging areas. There are of course many others but they all have its own and very strong specifics to be respected.

In order to optimize your procurement processes and to reduce costs it is certainly useful to consider the following points:

- be prepared to face the engineering and development community of your industry

- read all about your sector in specialized magazines

- jointly analyze innovative roadmaps from vendors with strong emphasis on first-to-market

- take care for specific and customized tailor-made products driven by external players

- pay attention to the impact of specific developments as you might barricade your own manufacturing process leaving hardly opportunities to step out

- avoid making extrapolations like “if it works over there it should also work here”

- carefully investigate the balance of power between vendor and customer for minimizing dependencies

- do not automatically connect a development contract with a manufacturing one

- create a strong risk management and contingency plan to protect yourself

- intensively validate vendors via process and development audits

- do not underestimate the “rising stars” coming out of the East (China, India, etc.)

- focus on the more advanced methodologies to reduce costs (auctions, VA/VE, standardisation, Six Sigma, simultaneous engineering, outsourcing, etc.)

Quite easy to see and feel that finding the right procurement solution for technology industries is not like a walk in the park. For some people it might even be easier to run the 100 meters in less then 10 seconds!

Talk to a supply chain specialist is the key message here …..

Supply Chain Workshop on Advanced Techniques to Reduce Costs

Attend the Workshop on Advanced Techniques to Cost Reduction
followed by a Business After Hours Reception

After 18 months of cut-backs, many organizations feel they have done the maximum to reduce costs. But how true is this in reality?

This workshop explains, in a practical way, the required interactions with suppliers and provides a clear overview of advanced cost-reduction methodologies (reverse auctions, value analysis/value engineering, low cost country sourcing, standardization, outsourcing, etc). Speaking at the event will be Johan van Hamme, Managing Director, Clear Vantage & Cu-Factor, and Marc Binnemans, CEO, Antilope Group.

By attending this event, participants will learn how to increase the maturity level of their purchasing and supply chain processes in order to reduce costs as a positive consequence. Within the context of the current economic situation, this information will be a useful asset to all companies.

The workshop will be followed by one of AmCham Belgium's popular Business After Hours receptions, which provide excellent networking opportunities for all in attendance.

Date: June 22 nd, 2010
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Venue:

Antilope Group
Industriestraat 5
2500 Lier

To view directions please click here.

Fee:

Members: € 55
Non-Members: € 110

Please note that the Business After Hours reception is included in the set fee.

Program:

4:00 pm: Welcome coffee and registration
4:30 pm: Workshop on Cost Reduction Techniques
6:00 pm: Business After Hours reception
8:00 pm: Close

Registrations:

Registrations can be made online at www.amcham.be, or by returning the attached response form by fax 02/513 35 90, or by email to dsmith@amcham.be. Notice of attendance and payment must reach AmCham Belgium by Close of Business June 18, 2010.

Payments must be made in advance by transfer to the AmCham Belgium bank account: ING 310-0548586-40 or by credit card when registering via our website.

Cancellations are possible until Close of Business June 18, 2010.

Procurement solutions for Automotive

It’s just a great feeling to drive my new car! With this pearl of technology I can conquer the world and experience lots of adventures. The leather smells really nice and with my new sunglasses I am completely the king of the world.

Did you however made any thoughts about the complexity of designing and manufacturing your fancy car full of great and modern things? Creating a safe, nice, dynamic and environmental friendly quality car is not an easy task.

Just not difficult to understand that all the processes secured by car manufactures and their tier suppliers will need to reflect all these requirements in a shorter and shorter timeframe. Changed market expectations have indeed forced the automotive guys to accelerate nearly everything …. with occasionally negative consequences in terms of quality.

Also the procurement solutions used in the automotive industry are known to be one of strongest of all industries and are often referenced by many other people as the target or objective to be reached.

Hereby just some examples of the high maturity level in this functional field:

- elements like just-in-time (JIT) and just-in-sequence (JIS) are on top of the logistical pyramid

- the audit mechanisms used to validate suppliers are very detailed and challenging

- the end-to-end process and cost-effective approach from innovation up till industrialisation are strongly followed and documented

- risk analysis and creation of contingency plans is a well-known sport

- the early involvement of specialized suppliers with the engineering community of car manufacturers speeds up the process while (hopefully) securing an intense and early match

- the more sophisticated cost-reduction methodologies like VA/VE, reverse auctions, standardization or simultaneous engineering are used on a daily basis

- the streamlining of material flows and reduction of inventories is well developed

- the push for yearly cost-reduction or productivity via supportive process improvements is a quite familiar topic

Without any doubt there are major differences between the various players. Just like a Jaguar is different to a Mercedes or a Volvo is different to a Peugeot.

Also the supply chain models and organizations are not exactly the same for the after-market compared to the original (high volume) market.

Just talk to specialists in procurement solutions for automotive to learn more…. Let’s hope you are not driving your car blindly!