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Popular Articles
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Check out my article in the latest issue of Supply Chain Quarterly
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Articles in category: Manufacturing & Automotive
China manufacturing shrinks
Explore iol.co.za (May 23 2013)
Manufacturing activity in China contracted in May for the first time in seven months in another sign of the weakness of recovery in the world's second-largest economy. The banking giant's preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.6 this month from a final 50.4 in April, putting it below the 50 mark that indicates contraction. A reading above signals expansion. It was the lowest figure since October's 49.5, according to the bank's data, and the first time it had been below 50 since then.
(Read Full Article)
A Manufacturing Travesty: The Procurement Blind Leading the Blind
Explore Spend Matters (May 20 2013)
KPMG’s 2013 Global Manufacturing Outlook, a fine piece of work conducted in partnership with a survey by the Economist, exposed a dirty secret that all of us with at least one foot in the manufacturing supply chain know to be true: we’re generally flying blind when it comes to activity lower down in our supply chain. In their survey of over 300 companies, KPMG found that 4% of companies have “little to no tier 1 supplier visibility” when it comes to “supply and capacity information” across “suppliers and logistics partners.” In other words, that’s 4 out of ...
(Read Full Article)
Barloworld profits surge by 50%
Explore iol.co.za (May 20 2013)
Johannesburg - Barloworld Ltd., the distributor of Caterpillar Inc.'s construction products in South Africa, said first-half profit advanced 50 percent as newly-acquired Bucyrus boosted sales in the equipment division. Net income attributable to shareholders rose to R643 million for the six months through March, compared with 429 million rand a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement today. Revenue advanced 11 percent to 31.3 billion rand. Barloworld, which earns 71 percent of its revenue in southern Africa, is a supplier of equipment to miner BHP Billiton Plc and oil and gas company Sasol Ltd.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Africa South Africa Bloomberg
Firms turn to procurement to manage fleets
Explore supplymanagement.com (May 17 2013)
Despite fleet vehicle numbers growing, the number of dedicated in-house UK fleet managers is shrinking and those that remain are increasingly focused on controlling costs. The Alphabet Fleet Management Report for 2012 said one of the most striking changes over the last 12 months is the rapidly shrinking number of dedicated in-house fleet managers in the private sector. “As fleet responsibility migrates to procurement, finance and particularly, operations departments, more fleet operators are turning to outside specialists to manage their vehicles,” the report said.
(Read Full Article)
Common mistakes in commodity risk
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (May 17 2013)
Current commodity risk management practice has flaws, something we uncovered having published a comprehensive report on commodity risk management in Europe. Limited understanding of risk: A startling discovery is that only 50% of all companies are quantifying their risk exposure, leaving every second company in the dark about where, in their commodity spend, the risk lies. Far too many companies rely on ambiguous assumptions about volatility, but fail to properly identify how price developments of various categories relate to each other.
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Flexibility will differentiate supply chains in future
Explore supplymanagement.com (May 15 2013)
How quickly a supply chain can respond to changing demand and business needs will be the key to success, according to the operations director at Lego. Speaking yesterday at SupplyFest in London, Calum Lewis, operations director at Lego explained the company has made a big effort to make its supply chain more agile. A key part of this involved streamlining manufacturing by reducing the number of different Lego components from 16,000 to 6,000. In addition, it moved manufacturing closer to its various markets, enabling it to respond more quickly to demand.
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Mentions: London
JPMorgan: Takeover may value Adcock at R14bn
Explore iol.co.za (May 10 2013)
Johannesburg - Adcock Ingram Holdings, South Africa’s largest supplier of hospital products, may gain a further 12 percent from yesterday’s 30-month high after it got takeover offers, according to JPMorgan Chase. Adcock’s board has received non-binding proposals that could lead to an offer for the whole company or a controlling stake, the Johannesburg-based maker of Panado painkillers and Corenza cold medicine said yesterday. The stock rose 8.9 percent to 67.50 rand by the close in Johannesburg, its highest level since November 2010, valuing the company at $1.3 billion.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Africa South Africa Bloomberg
Adidas improves supply chain communication
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (May 7 2013)
The sportswear group has released notes on the success of a handful of CSR-oriented projects that aimed to tackle issues in the supply chain, championing the results as an example of excellence in communication. In the second half of 2012, Adidas Group launched a mobile phone communication pilot project at one of the company’s main footwear suppliers in Indonesia. The project, which was inspired by an ILO Better Work initiative, looks to take advantage of the fact that the vast majority of factory workers in the country have mobile phones and are active users.
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Mentions: Indonesia
Conflict Minerals : Compliance and Auditing Strategy
Explore Spend Matters (May 6 2013)
Compliance audits will undoubtedly form a critical component of overall compliance strategies for companies that must document traceability and compliance in their supply chain for conflict minerals compliance. But how far should compliance audits go? Earlier today, Lawrence Heim (Director of The Elm Consulting Group International) suggested that audits should consider traceability and attest down to the mine-site level. This includes chain of custody, refiners/smelters and manufacturing suppliers in the supply chain (e.g., tier 3 semi-finished material supplier; tier 2 parts suppliers; tier 1 component suppliers) as well as at the OEM manufacturing level itself.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Thomas Kase
Barloworld follows Caterpillar to month high
Explore iol.co.za (May 6 2013)
Johannesburg - Barloworld, a South African seller of equipment to mining and construction companies, rose to the highest in more than a month after biggest supplier Caterpillar rallied on an improved growth outlook. Barloworld advanced as much as 3.9 percent and traded 3.3 percent higher at 98.63 rand a share by 4:21 p.m. in Johannesburg, the highest since April 3. More than 650,000 shares traded, about 78 percent of the three month daily average. Caterpillar, the world’s biggest construction and mining equipment maker, has gained more than 8 percent since it cut its 2013 ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Bloomberg Johannesburg
Five Leading Packaging Companies Combining To Create The World's Sixth-Largest Global Plastics Packaging Company
Explore PR Newswire (May 2 2013)
Five leading packaging companies in North America and Europe today announced they intend to combine in order to operate as one global leader under the banner of Exopack Holdings Sarl, a new Luxembourg company ("the Combined Company"). The combined business will have 63 plants, 8,650 employees and aggregate revenues of more than US$2.5B, making it the sixth-largest plastics packaging company in the world. Joining Exopack, a U.S.-based producer of flexible paper and plastic packaging, and advanced coatings, will be four leading companies based in Europe – Britton Group, a flexible plastic packaging manufacturer; PACCOR, the second-largest ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Chicago
Implementing purchasing cards? Keep an eye on...
Explore SmartProcurement.co.za (May 2 2013)
Procurement Cards (P-Cards) are rapidly gaining acceptance in South African business circles as an efficient way of managing spend with company-approved vendors on low-value/high-volume transactions. When implementing a P-Card programme within your company there are a few things that should be noted, advises Kgomotso Ntsimane, Marketing Manager for Nedbank Corporate Issuing, in this month’s SmartProcurement. "P-Cards afford greater visibility of what is being spent and, as a result, greater control and a lesser chance of abuse. A P-Card programme allows the company to see where purchases are made in a convenient, central electronic location. This allows for consolidation ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: South Africa
Africa and China : More than minerals
Explore The Economist (May 1 2013)
Chinese are coming to Africa in ever greater numbers and finding it a comfortable place to visit, work in and trade. An estimated 1m are now resident in Africa, up from a few thousand a decade ago, and more keep arriving. Chinese are the fourth-most-numerous visitors to South Africa. Among them will be China’s new president, Xi Jinping, who is also going to Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo on his first foreign outing as leader. The origin of China’s fascination with Africa is easy to see. Between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts lie many of ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Beijing Africa South Africa
Supplier audits not up to the challenge
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (May 1 2013)
Over the last week world headlines has been dominated by the news of the collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh, leading to questions about the effectiveness of supplier audits. Over the last week world headlines has been dominated by the news of the collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh, leading to questions about the effectiveness of supplier audits. According to reports on The Wall Street Journal, at least two of the buildings in the Rana Plaza complex, a series of factories located 20 miles outside the capital Dhaka which collapsed killing 382 people, at last count ...
(Read Full Article)
Beyond Procurement 14: Next-level collaborative buying
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (Apr 30 2013)
Collaborative buying has been typified by one or more companies joining together in some form of cooperative arrangement to increase their buying leverage in the marketplace, mostly with the aim of maximising price leverage. The distinguishing difference between this more traditional form of collaborative buying and "Next Level" is that these relationships are now being created and expanded to capitalise on much more than simple cost reduction, and taking on more complex forms. It’s a logical and powerful approach that builds on procurement’s traditional negotiation capability, offering it even further leverage.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: China Switzerland Daimler
Climate Change and Productivity
Explore Columbia Business School (Apr 29 2013)
Extreme weather can wreak havoc on cities and their economies. Damage from hurricanes Katrina and Sandy is estimated at more than $150 billion and over $60 billion, respectively. Weather-based power failures and disruptions to transportation systems can delay commuters, stall deliveries, and choke supply chains. And even where extreme conditions are common, economic life suffers. Regions with hot, wet climates are less productive on average. Professor Marcelo Olivares wanted definitive evidence to show whether — and how much — extreme weather affects productivity.
(Read Full Article)
Toyota SA’s Van Zyl takes charge of all of Africa
TOYOTA South Africa Motors president and CEO Johan van Zyl has been appointed the CEO of Toyota in Africa, as part of a major restructuring Toyota Motor Corporation announced on Friday. Toyota is the most-sold vehicle brand in South Africa. The position of CEO of Toyota in Africa gives Dr van Zyl executive responsibility of the African operations. It would cover all aspects of the company’s automotive business including product planning, sales, manufacturing and exports. The changes to executive management of the company followed the new strategic direction announced in March 2011 as part of the Toyota Global Vision ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Volkswagen Toyota General Motors
Memo to the CEO: Suppliers Could Be Our Key to Growth
Explore Old St Labs (Apr 20 2013)
You have no doubt heard the phrase that the customer is the key to a business’s success. However, there’s one key factor that could cause a breakdown in a business’s success regardless of how it treats its customers and that is suppliers. Think of suppliers as essential investors in your business venture. Not only can these suppliers create quality products and store them at affordable rates, which in turn can expand your business; but, they can also be the key factor in a business’s failure if they fail to meet expected deadlines or produce bad quality ...
(Read Full Article)
Unilever on path to raw material sustainability
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (Apr 17 2013)
With 36% agricultural materials now sourced sustainably, the consumer goods giant has exceeded its interim milestone of 30%, a target that was set in 2010 when the company launched its ’Sustainable Living Plan’. This achievement is a sign that the company on the right path to achieve its aim of doubling the size of its business whilst reducing its environmental footprint and improving its positive social impact. Commenting on the news, Unilever CPO Marc Engel said: "Climate change, water scarcity, unsustainable farming practices, and rising populations all threaten agricultural supplies and food security.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Unilever
Textiles competitiveness programme creates over 12 000 permanent jobs – DTI
Explore Engineering News (Apr 15 2013)
The Clothing and Textiles Competitiveness Programme (CTCP) had, to date, created more than 12 000 new permanent jobs in South Africa’s clothing, textiles, leather and footwear sectors, Department of Trade and Industry director-general Lionel October said on Monday. Speaking at the Source Africa 2013 conference, in Cape Town, he indicated that the CTCP, which was launched in September 2010, had breathed new life into these sectors, with more than 400 companies having been assisted under the programme and R1.5-billion worth of applications having been approved.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Africa South Africa Department of Trade and Industry
Manufacturing confidence edges up, but outlook remains uncertain - BER
Explore Engineering News (Apr 15 2013)
The Bureau for Economic Research’s (BER’s) latest Manufacturing Survey has indicated that, while manufacturing business confidence registered its third consecutive increase of four index points to reach 42 in the first quarter of this year, it remains below the 47 index points recorded in the first quarter of 2012. The most positive result was the notable improvement in export sales and order volumes, which recorded significant increases.
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Bureau for Economic Research Kagiso
Honda, Toyota, Nissan in 3.3m recall
Explore iol.co.za (Apr 14 2013)
Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda were recalling about 3.3 million vehicles worldwide because the passenger-side air bag could deploy with too much force, sending shards of metal into the passenger area, the companies said on Thursday. The recalls, announced in Tokyo, include about 1.7 million Toyotas, 1.1 million Hondas, 480 000 Nissans and 20 000 Mazdas. Almost 1.4 million of the vehicles are in the US. Among the vehicle makers, Honda has had the most serious, continuing problem with air bags. Before Thursday’s action, Honda had recalled almost 2 million vehicles since 2008 for an ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Toyota Washington General Motors
SABMiller aims for nine-percent rise in African beer sales
Explore iol.co.za (Apr 11 2013)
SABMiller planned to boost beer volume sales in Africa by between 7 percent and 9 percent a year by slashing prices, using more local grains and cheaper packaging, and negotiating better tax terms with governments, the company said yesterday. “On average the African continent [in terms of gross domestic product] will grow 5 percent to 6 percent per annum we think… we would expect to capture maybe 2 to 3 percentage points [beer volume sales growth] above that,” SABMiller Africa’s finance director, Jonathan Kirby, told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Abuja, Nigeria. He said the brewer planned to ...
(Read Full Article)
Mentions: Reuters Africa South Africa
Wal-Mart focuses on suppliers' factory safety
Explore Procurement Leaders Network (Apr 10 2013)
Last November a fire ripped through the clothing factory owned by Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh, killing 112 people and injuring a further 150. After the fire, Wal-Mart said that it was unaware that any of its own-label clothing was being produced in the factory and had not authorised anyone to manufacture goods here for them. A report by Bangladeshi authorities suggested that the factory had not been fit for use and the retailer was criticised for not knowing where in its supply chain that goods were being produced. Wal-Mart said that it will be donating $1.6m to the Institute ...
(Read Full Article)
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