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Is your sourcing strategic?
Strategy is a plan of action, or policy, designed to achieve an overall aim. Sourcing is the buying of a product or service delivery from a supplier. Strategic Sourcing is an organized and collaborative approach to leveraging targeted spending across locations with select suppliers that are best suited to create knowledge and value in the customer-supplier interface.
Some common misconceptions of strategic sourcing are:
• Strategic sourcing is only focused on getting the cheapest service
• Strategic sourcing is only focused on activities involving purchasing
• Decisions from strategic sourcing are based on opinions, unjustified preference, or complacency
• Strategic sourcing is a one-time project or decision
The above misconceptions reflect a “purchasing agent” mentality as opposed to that of a “sourcing strategy.” A true sourcing strategy is focused on:
• Getting the best service at the best value
• Incorporating customer needs, organizational goals and market conditions
• Making decisions built on fact based analysis and market intelligence utilizing a collaborative approach
• A continuous process with the goal of continued improvement
The theory of strategic sourcing has been around for many years and has been successfully implemented at a wide range of organizations. However, its implementation is far from uniform and many organizations must adapt it to fit their own corporate priorities.
Allyn International has a great Sourcing Department that can really help your organization create a sourcing strategy to procure suppliers for its logistic needs.
Contributor: Cleve George, Allyn Sourcing Expert, Fort Myers, FL
Let Allyn be your logistics arm, contact us at: AllynLogisticsConsulting@allynintl.com
Sources:
www.ism.ws
http://ast.umich.edu/pdfs/What-is-strategic-sourcing-102811.pdf
http://www.supplymanagement.com/resources/2011/the-seven-stages-of-a-sourcing-strategy