Sourcing
Your Sourcing team is the beginning of the Supply Chain link. Sourcing teams connect the world of 'need' from an internal customer/end user’s specifications to operationalizing in the field. The Sourcing staff should have strong skills in which they project manage, find suppliers, negotiate contracts, build pricing lists, watch the market for changes to your industry and make proactive movements to solidify your supply chain and be the liaison everyone needs to make products and projects happen. They are incredibly important and vital to a successful outcome for supply chain as a whole.
The Sourcing and Procurement connection:
The Sourcing arm of Procurement should be assigned to work with internal stakeholders with a 'Need State' on specifications for products or services. Once the specifications are identified, the Sourcing team works on qualifying a vendor for the company. The team then identifies specs, issues RFX’s (RFP, RFI, RFQ, etc) , negotiates the contract, manages the supplier and identifies backup suppliers. If the sourcing team is not strong, or is not experienced enough in their field, their slow project turn around times, poor contract negotiations, or incorrect specifications could be the broken link causing a chain reaction all the way to the bottom. Procurement begins their duties based on the completed projects of your Sourcing team. If the completed project sourcing provides is weak, it will create a domino effect down the line of procurement, ultimately causing a loss in profit, loss in product, and/or the complete disruption of processes and timelines.
If you find that you are having challenges understanding the correct flow of sourcing and how it affects your supply chain, attaining new suppliers, obtaining NDA’s, slow contract negotiations, or unreviewed contract apprrovals, JPDean Consulting can help take your sourcing department to the next level. We can work with your Sourcing team to identify the weaknesses and strengthen the team as a whole.