Exam 20: Purchasing and Supply Strategy Trends

Purchasing or supply will play a less important role in time-based competition because of its inability to affect time-related processes and activities.

Providing ongoing purchase price and cost reduction, combined with quality and delivery performance improvement, is the maximum contribution expected of purchasing and supply.

Leading sustainability efforts with suppliers and their suppliers will decrease in importance.

Category strategies will become less complex, requiring only internal functional and executive engagement, including review and approval.

Which of the following is not one of the strong soft-side skills for future supply managers?

Strategic working relationships between buyers and suppliers will not have to improve for increased value creation.

The currently dominant decentralized model for supply management will continue to be a key strategy and likely the norm for the foreseeable future.

Which of the following is a question that companies will need to carefully establish their supply bases?

Companies will decreasingly use value-focused sourcing approaches to evaluate how a supplier or group of suppliers may be utilized to gain competitive advantage for categories with high business impact.

Cross-functional and organizational teams will become more important to supply management strategy.

The overall purpose of a purchase category strategy is to maximize value to the buyer, but not the supplier, by leveraging only internal company, and not external supplier, resources and capabilities.

Given the global nature of many businesses, especially where customer growth is coming from new and emerging markets, there is an increasing need for a centralized focus to meet unique customer needs.

Strong hard-side skills, such as a collaborative working style, innovative supply approaches and leadership abilities versus a narrow process view, will be necessary to lead supply efforts and achieve results.

All of the following are examples of the future focus on supply chain performance except _____.

Time-related capabilities have driven and will continue to drive the next generation of customer's order winners.

Different industries change differently.

Big data combined with the capabilities of analytical tools (descriptive statistical analyses, regression, predictive modeling, simulations, AI, and so forth) combined with high-talent people will further improve supply analyses and decision-making across many areas.

Overall, future purchasing and supply mission and goals will be narrower and less aligned with the strategic objectives of the firm.

Competition is no longer between fast and agile and slow firms but between big and small firms.

Metrics to measure supplier innovation contribution, such as number of new-product or process innovations suggested, product innovations resulting in revenue generation, and number of new patents benefiting the buyer will be broadly implemented.