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Partnership sourcing may sound impressive but it can carry hidden dangers, warns David Pearson
Imagine the US without a common currency to see how farcical the European situation is, writes Monty Burton
It’s that time of year again, and every time it gets more difficult to pick the book of the year. Caught up between indecision and greed, I had to choose three. The first, in the field of purchasing, would be Udo Koppelmann’s Procurement Marketing for daring to take a different approach to purchasing - an approach that is badly needed.
Honda has postponed plans to build a small car for Europe at its Swindon plant because of the strength of sterling and the weakness of the euro. But the Japanese car manufacturer will increase production of its CR-V sports utility vehicle and export it to the US as well as Europe.
General Motors (GM) in Europe claims to have cut transaction processing times by 20 per cent and will soon expand its web-based retailing and supply purchasing systems. However, it will replace the online parts supplier and auction site TradeXchange with Covisint, set up by GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, when it begins trading next year.
German car maker BMW is creating a consulting and services company for all its e-commerce activities, including operations from component purchasing to vehicle marketing. The new company, called Nexolab, will employ 50 consultants, possibly rising to 250 within three years. The move follows a similar initiative by DaimlerChrsyler last month.
The Internet may have sped up supply chain relationships in manufacturing but even with e-commerce supplier numbers need to be kept to a minimum, according to Ton van Esch, strategy chief at Xerox, which has cut suppliers from 5,000 to 400.