Steel's Challenge
By Wim Plaizier and Benoit Nachtergaele
The future market for iron ore—the main raw material in steel production—will be marked by higher, more volatile prices. To stay competitive, steel producers must be vigilant in managing the steel price-volume equation, while continuing to work closely with their suppliers and customers.

Closing Procurement Loopholes
By Falyne Chave, Carrie Ericson, and Tejal Thakkar
Why do chief procurement officers still have trouble getting people to comply with processes and strategies that can generate major bottom-line savings? A recent A.T. Kearney study examines best practices in compliance, highlighting companies that have achieved their compliance goals.

JumpStarting Your eSourcing Initiative
By Carrie Ericson and Gregg Brandyberry
As delivery tools such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) have become more popular, so has eSourcing. Yet the technological advances and positive results have not led to widespread implementation by most global companies. How can companies JumpStart their eSourcing initiatives?

Higher Visibility, Greater Expectations – A.T. Kearney Indirect Procurement Study, 2010
By Jan-Fokke van de Bosch, Alec Bounds, Simon Rycraft, and Julia Trampel
Today far more people recognize the importance of indirect procurement as it now includes purchasing complex goods and services such as IT, marketing and advertising, facilities management, professional services, and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), but few companies manage complex indirect spend categories with the level of attention necessary to reap the potential benefits.

Driving Down the Cost of Raw Materials
By Bill Windle, Michael Mazur, David Lamb, Eric Gierahn, and Kevin Krot
For companies that use steel in their manufacturing processes, success depends on smart pricing and materials management strategies—recovering materials costs, improving sourcing, and utilizing steel scrap throughout their value chains.

Bracing For The Fall
By Doug Harvey, Sudipta Ghosh, Andreas Liedtke, & Andre Hendriksen
As many U.S. automakers teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, and tier 2 and 3 automotive suppliers grapple with their own financial problems, tier 1 auto suppliers are caught in the middle. A recent A.T. Kearney study indicates that more than 50 percent of tier 1 suppliers could go bankrupt. Despite this difficult environment, however, there are steps that smart companies can take...

Managing a Global Supply Chain in a Globally Challenged World
By Paul Laudicina
In a world that is simultaneously enabled, imperiled and empowered, supply management professionals have a key role to play in maintaining the successes of globalization, while also addressing the challenges. Speaking at the Institute for Supply Management’s 94th international conference, A.T. Kearney Chairman and Managing Officer Paul Laudicina called the global supply chain the “canary in the mine of shifting business conditions.”

Aligning a Misaligned Supply Chain
By Joachim Ebert & Joan Gelpi
Manufacturers know that a fluid supply chain keeps their products moving from the beginning stages of production all the way to their customers’ hands. A misaligned supply chain can lead to higher costs, lower quality and poor customer service. Companies that gain a deeper understanding of their suppliers’ capabilities and their own needs….

New Supply Realities
GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble and Royal Bank of Scotland are among the top-performing procurement organizations recognized in A.T. Kearney’s 2008 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement (AEP) study, the sixth in a series that dates back nearly two decades. The research identifies emerging trends in procurement and highlights the leaders...

The Purchasing Chessboard
By Christian Schuh, Robert Kromoser, Michael F. Strohmer, Ramon Romero Perex, Alenka Triplat
Consolidating supplier markets, rising energy prices and the growing demand for raw materials in emerging markets have fundamentally changed the purchasing framework. Suppliers are more powerful than ever, which means buyers must adjust quickly to a new playing field. A.T. Kearney developed The Purchasing Chessboard — a compilation of insights and experience from thousands...

Restoring Cost Transparency
By Daniel Mahler, Sven Massen, John Wang, & Ramón Romero Pérez
Consumer packaged goods companies are facing a paradox: an abundance of increasingly individualized products is driving top line growth, while the complexity of such products is obscuring cost transparency. Adding a new product size, formulation or line extension adds cost—but exactly how much? Companies have introduced an unprecedented level of raw material and...

Supply Chain Globalization: Global Strategies That Go Beyond the Basics
By Mirko Martich, Sean Monathan, & Sumit Chandra
Supply chain globalization is the natural outcome of today’s expanding consumer markets as companies struggle to meet the dynamic needs of growing markets and new consumer segments. Despite the risks caused by economic and political uncertainties, global supply chains are the wave of the future. Companies that make key decisions early...

Managing Transportation
By Randy Garber, Rajeev Karmacharya, & P.S. Subramaniam
Across industries, companies are dealing with ever-increasing transportation costs due to rising energy costs, complex supply chains, and a competitive marketplace where customers are becoming more demanding and therefore shipments are becoming more fragmented. With costs that approach 5 percent of total sales and 15 percent of the cost of goods sold, reducing...

The Indian and Chinese Auto Component Markets
Manish Mathur, Jian Sun, Ram Kidambi, Stephen Dyer
Margin pressures are driving auto manufacturers in developing markets to source components for low-cost countries. This, coupled with the growing demand for automobiles in India and China, is expected to fuel the soaring prospects of their domestic auto component industry. Although global tier-one suppliers have not yet established a measurable manufactiuring footprint...

Key Supply Strategies for Tomorrow: Perpective on the Future of Purchasing & Supply
Supply chain globalization is the natural outcome of today’s expanding consumer markets as companies struggle to meet the dynamic needs of growing markets and new consumer segments. Despite the risks caused by economic and political uncertainties, global supply chains are the wave of the future. Companies that make key decisions early...

Capturing Sourcing Savings
By Randy Watson, Suman Sarkar
The power of strategic sourcing cannot be denied. For some companies, reducing costs by 10 percent on goods and services purchased is equivalent to a 25 percent increase in revenue and overall profits. But as powerful a tool as sourcing is, many of its anticipated benefits don't reach the bottom line because employees and suppliers fail to comply with pricing and terms laid out...

Destination Latin America: A Near-Shore Alternative
Latin America has arrived front and center as a desirable offshore destination. As a “near-shore” destination, Latin America has what many U.S. and some European companies want: low-cost Spanish-language capability and a growing, relatively low-cost, skilled bilingual workforce.

Unlocking Value from E-Supply Management
John Blascovish & Jules Goffe
A.T. Kearney Executive Agenda article, in which the authors draw on their experience working with leading companies worldwide and on A.T. Kearney research to identify five essential keys to unlocking the full potential of your organization's e-supply management strategies.

What Is an Auction, Anyway?
A.T. Kearney Procurement & Analytic Solutions
Auctions are unmistakably among the hottest eSourcing technologies on the Internet today. But what exactly is an auction, anyway?

You can auction almost anything!
A.T. Kearney Procurement & Analytic Solutions
You can auction almost anything. Anything that doesn't have a fixed price associated with it, that is. Why? Because auctions are fundamentally about competition driving prices up or down.

Supply Advantage: A New Mindset for Procurement
Jose Morales, Tom O'Neill, Niul Burton
Just when smart companies thought they had squeezed the last ounce of savings from their supply bases, enlightened procurement organizations are focusing more on process than on function. Strategic players have learned that they can do much more than drive down costs.