Excellence in Supplier Management

Book Information

Full Description:

Many organisations often fail, or perhaps stumble, in managing their suppliers. This is because the internal customer, or worse, someone else, is left to manage the selected suppliers, without perhaps realising that they have to. There is, therefore, often little use of best practice regarding how a procurement department relates to, or gets involved with the essential supplier management in the procurement process.
This book concentrates on the need for better supplier management, and improving supplier management. It gives guidelines on how to better manage contracts and develop suppliers. The book answers the question:
“What kind of relationship do I need with suppliers so I can get the best from them, and therefore the best for me?” The style of the book is direct with little jargon. It covers all of the basics as well as providing detailed and wider discussions to encourage thought and practical application. To facilitate practical application, the book is illustrated by case studies and application checklists.

The following main sections are covered:
Procurement Strategy, Supplier Management; the Suppliers View,
Supplier Relationship Management, Supplier Development, Supplier Management: Making the change and Supplier Management: Conclusion

Table of Contents:

About this book i
About the authors ii

Foreword vi

Part one: Procurement Strategy 1

Part two: Supplier Management; the Suppliers View 55

Part three: Supplier Relationship Management 77

Part four: Supplier Development 120

Part five: Supplier Management: Making the change 147

Part six: Conclusion 180

Author Information:

Stuart Emmett

After spending over 30 years in commercial private sector service industries, working in the UK and in Nigeria, I moved into Training. This was associated with the then Institute of Logistics and Distribution Management (now the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport).

After being a Director of Training for nine years, I then choose to become a freelance independent mentor/coach, trainer and consultant. This built on my past operational and strategic experience and my particular interest in the “people issues” of management processes. Trading under the name of Learn and Change Limited, I now enjoy working on five continents, principally in Africa and the Middle East, but also in the Far East, Europe and South America.

Additional to undertaking training, I also am involved with one-to-one coaching / mentoring, consulting, writing, assessing and examining for professional institutes’ qualifications. This has included being Chief Examiner on the Graduate Diploma of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and as an external university examiner for an MSc in Purchasing and Logistics.

I can be contacted at stuart@learnandchange.com or by visiting www.learnandchange.com. I do welcome any comments.

Barry Crocker

Barry is a lecturer in the Salford Business School at the University of Salford .He is currently Programme Leader for the MSc Purchasing and Logistics and MSc Supply Chain Management. Previously, he has had many years industrial experience in various management positions in the field of transport, warehousing and physical distribution. He has been an assistant chief examiner for the professional stage of the CIPS Diploma.

His previous publications include, as co-author with Stuart, The Relationship Driven Supply Chain (2006) and Procurement Principles and Management by Bailey, Farmer, Crocker, Jessop and Jones (2008)10th Edition.

Like Stuart, Barry has conducted many training sessions for multi-nationals in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East in the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Reviews

This book champions better supplier management and provides guidelines to manage contracts and vendors. Its structure is a basic cover-all approach to supplier management - including procurement strategy, the delivery process, supplier development and change management. While aimed at procurement professionals, lecturers and students, the content is definitely more academic than vocational. However, the use of case studies lightens the tone and some intuitive examples provide a practical application of the theories discussed.
The early chapters are quite ponderous, and the use of the Kraljic matrix of classifying suppliers by spend and risk is slightly overplayed. Despite this, the essence and core themes of the book are sound: partnering with suppliers and enhancing relationships through the supply chain to improve performance. The areas of supplier development and relationship management are particularly perceptive, focusing on developing the softer skills. These practices are in danger of being lost, as the focus shifts to cost reduction and managing the bottom line.

Working with suppliers and sharing information will enable cost-savings objectives in the short term and enhance overall performance in the long run. Although the use of relationships and soft skills to improve performance is recognised, it is important to ensure that the contract form agreed is in line with the type of relationship desired. In this, the book is rather light and the use of commercially incentivised contracts is not covered in detail. This book could and should be read more than once to get the best value from its insight.

Chris Graves, Account director - corporate services, Atkins