The Big Squeeze: Ten Ways to Cut Your Spend 10 % Right Now!

By: Patricia E. Moody

The Oaklea Press, 2005

ISBN: 1-892538-45-8

246 pages; $23.95

To order: visit www.oakleapress.com

Sometimes the best teaching method is to tell a story. In her latest book, The Big Squeeze, prolific business writer Patricia Moody uses the tale of a struggling, fictional company, United Manufacturing, to present a roadmap for moving toward strategic sourcing.

United Manufacturing's plight will sound familiar to many managers. As the story opens, the manufacturer is beating its shipping numbers but rising direct and indirect material costs are leaving it with a profit of zero. United managers scramble to cut costs, first focusing on the traditional methods of squeezing suppliers and implementing mandatory lean manufacturing courses. The results prove disastrous—costs continue to rise while quality problems and supply shortages mount as suppliers refuse to go to bat for the company. Meanwhile managers have to fight one fire after another (sometimes literally) just to keep pace.

United Manufacturing's woes do make for a quick read. And some of Moody's spoofs of corporate culture are amusing—particularly her gentle lampooning of the lean manufacturing culture with United Manufacturing's devotion to "Spirit Master Kaizen Classes" and "Kaizen Kulture Change." Unfortunately, however, the book spends too much time—more than 100 pages—on this setup before getting to the meat of Moody's message.

That meat consists of a 12-step sourcing plan that shows how a company like United Manufacturing with immature sourcing practices can move from beginner to expert supply management. For the short-term, the plan focuses on consolidating and leveraging spending power. Throughout the plan, Moody emphasizes the power of centralizing all buying and creating written commodity strategy plans.

Moody also enumerates ten savings areas, which include maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO); transportation, logistics, distribution, and packaging; outsourcing; product design; and costing. In particular, Moody says that many companies have ignored the savings potential in transportation, logistics, distribution, and packaging. At the end, Moody provides a hundred pages of raw responses from industry experts to her initial question: How can a company cut its spending by 10 percent right now? This section might prove the most beneficial to veteran supply managers. Those who are patient enough to page through the responses may find a hidden savings gem that they had not considered.

In the main, however, none of this will be new to the seasoned supply management professional. Yet The Big Squeeze may prove to be a useful teaching aid. Its unusual format could make it a welcome alternative to the typical dry business book and provide a quick way to get those unversed in supply management up to speed.

Achieving Supply Chain Excellence Through Technology Volume 7

Compiled by: Montgomery Research and Accenture

www.ascet.com

For managers in search of white papers about supply chain technology, the Web site for the new volume of Achieving Supply Chain Excellence Through Technology (ASCET) is a goldmine. For the past seven years, Montgomery Research and the consulting firm Accenture have published this annual anthology of articles from supply chain management consultants, technology providers, analysts, and the occasional practitioner.

While readers can still choose to order a print copy of the latest volume, ASCET's Web site contains not only the recently released seventh volume but also the entire contents of all six previous volumes. This is truly a mother lode of information about supply chain technology.

Unlike many of the past volumes of ASCET, this year's volume draws less heavily on vendor white papers and instead contains mostly viewpoints from Accenture consultants. As a result, the publication reads more like a compilation of thought leadership and less like a catalog of product descriptions. For example, the "keynote" article for this year's volume focuses on how a company's ability to grow profitably depends on its supply chain. To enable profitable growth, a supply chain needs to be built around customer demand and not asset utilization or supplier efficiency. In this article, Accenture's John Matchette analyzes the capabilities required for this demand-driven supply chain—including data visibility, partner integration, and innovative technologies.

The Web site itself is very user-friendly. Readers can quickly search by topic—such as collaboration, inventory and warehousing, or sourcing—or they can browse through the chapters of a particular volume. For example, volume seven is divided into six sections: vision, procurement and logistics, design and manufacturing, fulfillment and RFID, collaboration, and industry outlook.

Finally, the Web site also allows the user to gain a sense of perspective and history. Reviewing old articles on the hottest supply chain issues of 1999 or 2000 can show how far and how quickly supply chain technology has come in the past seven years. RFID and wireless location technologies have replaced e-business and e-commerce as the top buzz words. And the goal now is flexible supply chains instead of robust supply chains. Yet what is more telling is how many of the same problems and questions still remain. Seven years later, we are still grappling with the same issues of collaboration, integration, and cultural change.

RFID Sourcebook

By Sandip Lahiri

IBM Press, 2006

ISBN: 0-13-185137-3

276 pages; $39.95

To order: visit www.ibmpressbooks.com

There's still a lot of uncertainty swirling around RFID technology. How exactly will it be used? Who will use it? What regulations will be established around it? How will the standards shake out? Will a 5-cent tag ever be realizable? Will anyone ever see a return on their investment?

While much remains unknown about the technology, a new book by IBM Press does a good job of summarizing what is known about RFID. Aptly titled RFID Sourcebook, this book covers the basics of radio-frequency identification from an overview of the technology to privacy concerns to both current and potential applications. It also guides the reader through forming a business justification for the emerging technology.

Author Sandip Lahiri does an excellent job of clearly and concisely discussing this complex technology. While he does not shy away from the technical details of RFID, he succeeds in writing about them in such a straightforward manner that it is understandable even to a lay person. RFID Sourcebook avoids relying too heavily on jargon or abstract terminology when describing how the technology works. Instead, Lahiri makes the technology concrete by providing plenty of product pictures, diagrams, and brief descriptions of actual implementations.

Likewise he concisely outlines both the benefits of RFID and its limitations. He gives a realistic look at the hurdles to mass adoption and when companies would be better off just using a bar code.

Potential readers should be aware that Lahiri is writing for a very broad audience and not just for supply chain managers. As a result, Lahiri's descriptions of such things as the different antenna types and the components that make up active and semi-active tags may be more information than the typical supply chain manager may need to know. Additionally, supply chain managers may be less interested in discussions of how RFID can be used in electronic toll payment, animal tracking, or airline baggage tracking.

Overall, however, the book fulfills its promise and provides a clear guide to current knowledge about RFID.

Supply Chain and Logistics Consultants Directory

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), 2005

97 pages; $39.95 for CSCMP members and $79.95 for nonmembers

What in the World is the Global Supply Chain?

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, 2005

40 minutes; $49.95.

To order: visit CSCMP's Web site at www.cscmp.org

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) has recently released two new educational resources that provide a good introduction to supply chain management. The CSCMP Supply Chain and Logistics Consultants Directory provides listings for 225 supply chain and logistics consultants, including complete contact information, description of services, and areas of specialization. According to the organization, the directory is especially suitable for mid-sized companies that have limited experience with consultants. As such, the directory also advises the reader on how to prepare a project proposal, select a consultant, and work with a consultant.

The organization has also developed a DVD, which will introduce students to the supply chain management profession. What in the World is the Global Supply Chain? runs 40 minutes and is appropriate for high school and college classrooms as well as entry-level industry training sessions.