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| • Managing Supplier Relationships Helping you turn your vendors into partners (yes, really!). More • Collaborative Supplier Improvement Initiatives Rolling up our sleeves with suppliers to improve performance. More • Linking Suppliers With Customer Demand Using “pull” to improve supply chain performance. More • Offshore Logistics Solutions Planning and managing the global supply chain. More • Vendor Compliance and Certification Programs Setting the bar high and keeping it there. More |
• Managing Supplier Relationships Helping you turn your vendors into partners (yes, really!). |
A few years ago, the idea of “partnering” with your vendors was all the rage. No, it didn’t always work, but the concept itself was sound. Still today, genuine partnerships between companies and their suppliers are yielding mutual gain – and ultimate consumer benefit. But chemistry and values have to be right, and communications have to be strong. And both partners must go into the partnership with the resources to face the challenges of partnering.The Progress Group can help you build real partnerships with suppliers, structure win/win relationships and take the partnership concept out of the warm, fuzzy stage into the real world. We understand that great supplier partnerships have a foundation of clear expectations, sound metrics, and superior performance. For more information, contact: Art Van Bodegraven, 770-360-5817, avan@theprogressgroup.com. |
| • Collaborative Supplier Improvement Initiatives Rolling up our sleeves with suppliers to improve performance. |
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Ideally, it ought to be enough to tell a supplier what you expect and get it. But in reality, rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in the process is a better way to get what you want. Working together, with both vision and focus, can lead to breakthroughs in quality and performance – including higher quality, lower cost, and greater reliability from your supplier. The Progress Group can help you form and facilitate customer/supplier teams for improved results. We can help you leverage their skills and knowledge, give them focus and direction, guide them to more effectively meet your needs and keep them on track. For more information, contact: Bruce Strahan, 770-804-9920, bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com |
| • Linking Suppliers With Customer Demand Using “pull” to improve supply chain performance. |
Over the years, in working with many successful supply chain managers, we’ve noticed that the best ones have something amazingly simple in common: they make responding to their marketplace’s changing needs first priority – and keep the focus on using their suppliers to meet those needs. When you can help your suppliers see your customers’ demands – the ultimate “pull” signals – they are in a better position to organize and produce effectively, leveraging their own capabilities to meet, through you, what the marketplace is asking for. Does this reduce their role to that of the glorified matchmaker? Perhaps it does, in a sense. But it also makes them very, very successful. The Progress Group can help you link your suppliers with downstream customer demand and teach them how to produce, for you, to meet it. We can also help you plan where and how to overlay special events on normal (“common-cause”) demand variation. For more information, contact: Bruce Strahan, 770-804-9920, bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com |
| • Offshore Logistics Solutions Planning and managing the global supply chain. |
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In our increasingly global economy, offshore sourcing for materials, components, and finished goods is a reality more and more companies must accept to remain competitive – both for domestic consumption, and for further off-shore processing and worldwide distribution. You can argue that the apparent cost savings may be offset by the time and complexity introduced, but global supply chains are here to stay anyway. Where once we had to consider truck vs. rail, and three time zones, now we’re also dealing with ocean and air in a vastly more complex network – one with significantly more regional variation than we’re accustomed to. The Progress Group has lived and breathed these issues, all over the world, as have our global partners. We have the tools, the people, and the relationships to help you meet the planning and performance imperatives of this brave new world. For more information, contact: Art Van Bodegraven, 770-360-5817, avan@theprogressgroup.com. |
| • Vendor Compliance and Certification Programs Setting the bar high and keeping it there. |
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Partnering with your vendors doesn’t have to mean you’re blood brothers (or sisters). Despite some confusion to the contrary across American companies, partnership still means business. It doesn’t mean you can’t expect strict, demanding certification and compliance programs. In fact, consistent compliance and documented certification are good signs that your supplier is evolving into a trusted partner. There’s also no reason to apologize to your “partner” for raising the bar over time by increasing requirements. In a world of continuous improvement, yesterday’s goal is tomorrow’s baseline – for all of us. The Progress Group can help you objectify your relationships with key suppliers, avoiding many of the common pitfalls we’ve seen in our travels. We can take you, and key suppliers, through a process of developing on-target certification/compliance programs. We can also update and upgrade existing programs, as well as audit performance against them, and design improvement plans for suppliers who are failing to meet their requirements. For more information, contact: Art Van Bodegraven, 770-360-5817, avan@theprogressgroup.com |
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Copyright © 2004 The Progress Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
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