How Steelcase Took Control of Supply Risk

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the November 2012 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

November 2012

We’ve all heard about the advantage of being a preferred customer to your buyers. Now we learn that it’s just as important to become a good customer to your key suppliers. This article explains the benefits of becoming a preferred customer and lays out the actions needed to become one.

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Supply risk management has taken on increased strategic importance as global supply and demand markets fluctuate due to political and economic uncertainties, shortened product lifecycles, supplier performance issues, natural disasters, and other factors. In this volatile environment, procurement needs to be established as a risk management discipline that is supported by company structures and processes. This is what Steelcase Inc. accomplished through its Global Procurement Process (GPP)—a comprehensive initiative that links supply risk management to procurement activities in a way that leads to fact-based decision making and superior business performance.

This article describes the Steelcase experience with its GPP. We relate the pain points leading to the creation of the initiative, the key elements incorporated into the GPP, and some results achieved to date. We also discuss implications that the Steelcase experience may have for others pursuing similar supply management initiatives in their own organization.

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