Month: April 2021

I wrote an article for the Kalamazoo Gazette a few years back. My editorial was in response to the 750 striking UAW hourly workers at the American Axle factory in Three Rivers, MI. These hourly workers make around $65 per hour with benefits and management wants to cut their pay/benefits in half. These strikes have started to shutdown several suppliers and GM factories. You should be able to read this...

Pasted below is feedback from a former student who works at TACOM (government SCM jobs). https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/535915100 These jobs do require U.S. citizenship and this is a unionized workforce.  Yes, unions only make up around 10-13% of America's workforce and most of them are actually government employees.  Pasted below is feedback from a former student who works at TACOM (who often has several job openings in Warren, MI).  This sounds like...

My version of the basic terms/conditions in a P.O. Save the above for your files. I consider this to be the basic terms and conditions associated with most Purchase Orders.  It lists all the most common terms and conditions typically associated with most industrial buying organizations and their suppliers. A contract between a buyer and supplier is often referred to as a Purchase Order (PO).  The terms and conditions on...

A former student asked me: Would you recommend using Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) or Consignment Inventory (CI)?  I feel like VMI means that you have to regulate the Suppliers more than Consignment would. Consignment allows you to have your inventory costs in the hands of the supplier so the inventory cost is lower for you.  In other words, Consignment means we will buy the stuff from suppliers, but we will...

Have you heard about supply chain risk lately? ArcGIS is a technology that can help companies manage risk.  Note, nationally, almost zero SCM graduates will have this on their resume.Someone recently asked me about taking GEOG 3010 (our ArcGIS Pro class).  Pasted below is some feedback from previous students. GEOG 3010 provides you with a skill set that no other SCM student will ever have. Email from the course instructor:...

WHAT IS THE FORMULA FOR ROI? Answer: Return on Investment equals Profit margin * asset turnover rate. WHAT IS THE FORMULA FOR PROFIT MARGIN? Answer: (Sales – cost of sales)/Sales  or Net Income/Sales Answer: WHAT IS THE FORMULA FOR NET INCOME? Sales – Cost of Sales Do you know how to make ROI go up?  Do you know how to widen margins? Do you know how to increase asset turnover rate? ...

A great read on sourcing strategy with my field notes... Here is great read on Make or Buy that I wrote in grad school LOCAL VS. NATIONAL VS. INTERNATIONAL SOURCES?Most buyers prefer to patronize local sources whenever such action is prudent. A Stanford University research study found that approximately 3/4 of 152 buyers surveyed indicated a preference to buy from local sources whenever possible. Many of them were willing to...

A great read on sourcing strategy with my field notes... Here is strategic sourcing paper that I wrote in grad school WHICH COMPANY WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE MORE VERTICALLY INTEGRATED, GENERAL MOTORS OR TOYOTA? WHICH COMPANY WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE MORE “HOLLOW”, GENERAL MOTORS OR TOYOTA?  Potential answers, you could say something like: I consider GM to be more hollow than Toyota because GM tends to outsource the hard...

Notice how many more hours Americans work and how many fewer vacation days Americans have.  There must be both negative and positive consequences associated with that.  We always seem to over do it.  A world class job offer for ISM graduates traditionally will include 2 weeks paid vacation (10 business days).  In America, vacation time is negotiable but most companies provide vacation time based on seniority (how long you have...