Efficiency Tips Archives - Proficient Sourcing

Procurement Practices Contributing to Supplier Performance Problems? Can it be True?

Charlie Harte — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 03:15:24 +0000

Do any of these apply to you and your company and it’s procurement practices? OEMs are trying to become more flexible in order to respond more rapidly to market conditionsand opportunities. They are relying more heavily on their suppliers to perform manufacturing operations formerly done in-house. At the same time they are trying to reduce…

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Reshoring Prototyping and Other Manufacturing Operations

Charlie Harte — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:02:42 +0000

An article from the Empire Group with this title appeared in January. The central thought is that former decisions to outsource certain functions, such as prototyping and “other manufacturing operations” are good candidates for reshoring consideration. Proficient Sourcing LLC is a business that provides excellent performing candidates for OEMs’ outsourcing needs, so we could not…

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US Energy: Some Thoughts and Happy New Year to All!

Charlie Harte — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 15:59:55 +0000

For our first Newsletter effort of 2020 let’s start with a subject of great significance — US energy. Since one of the major advantages of US manufacturing is cheap and abundant energy, it’s an especially important subject for those of us relying on machinery. While we claim no special expertise, we believe there are several…

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Happiness Awaits!

Charlie Harte — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 20:25:46 +0000

What is Proficient Sourcing, and why we benefit procurement professionals. If you would like to save time and effort finding good supplier candidates, then we can help. It is our objective to increase overall procurement happiness, which is accomplished by presenting outstanding candidates for your needs quickly and without any obligation on your part. Happiness…

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Next-shoring: Your Manufacturing Future?

Charlie Harte — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 09:04:50 +0000

The rapid pace of change in a few key areas has reshaped manufacturing strategy. New developments have led to “next-shoring”, which means locating suppliers and manufacturing facilities near to locations where both customers are as well as sources for innovation. Innovation, according to most sources, occurs most easily when manufacturing is nearby. And this became…

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Get better RFQ responses: Part 1

Charlie Harte — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 21:30:26 +0000

If you seek a new supplier and are considering ones you don’t know, we believe you can do some rather simple things to get better RFQ results. We have lots of thoughts on this; future newsletters will have more. Most of what we see is an RFQ to manufacture or fabricate some metal or plastic…

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The Kraljic Portfolio Purchasing Model—(continued)

Charlie Harte — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:59:45 +0000

Last year we wrote about both Pareto’s Law (the 80-20 rule) and the Kraljic Model. At Proficient Sourcing we are interested in the philosophy employed by our customer base. In particular we hope to better understand OEM procurement professionals in need of excellent manufacturing sources for their outsourced work. In the two year history of…

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Foreign language Drawings and Specifications

Charlie Harte — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 15:24:09 +0000

Proficient Sourcing encourages OEM buyers to allow us to help them by providing candidates for their custom manufacturing requirements. OEM buyers may be dealing with foreign products, and their RFQ’s may be for a foreign engineered product. Accordingly, on occasion we deal with drawings, specifications, and RFQ supporting information in some foreign language. By and…

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How to communicate to a first time buyer!

Charlie Harte — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:58:29 +0000

Recently we were awarded business from a new customer. The supplier is a small company featuring highly desired capabilities and, in this case, provided very good pricing. So we got an initial “trial” order. The supplier’s customer service person is one of the owners, who’s often in the shop. In order to minimize customer concerns,…

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The Suggestion Box

Charlie Harte — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:23:09 +0000

During a recent factory visit we observed a suggestion box covered with dust and apparently fallen out of use. This cannot present a good image to employees, and also reminded us of the many things companies do to encourage employee involvement in generating improvements, both good and bad. THE GOOD: One company had regularly scheduled…

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