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Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

The preparations for the 2011 PMAC National Conference are well underway and registrations will be opening soon. As you look forward to joining your peers in beautiful Whistler, British Columbia in June, let's take a moment to remember the highlights from Regina.  

Enjoy the memories and see you in Whistler!

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

PMAC began its Board Chair Gala, on the final night of the Conference, by presenting its prestigious Awards of Distinction to the 2010 recipients:

• Sylvain Lacoursière
  Outstanding Achievement Award
• Grand & Toy
  Supply Chain Excellence Award
• Tim O’Brien, SCMP
  Fellow Designation Award

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

Some last words from Bob Dye, President, PMAC, who will be retiring from PMAC after six years of dedicated service.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

Our final keynote, motivational speaker Darci Lang, talks about the steps that we can all take to live happier lives. Darci admits that she wasn't always as happy and fulfilled as she is now; her life has been full of bumps along the way, but she has persevered through it all.  During her speech she tells of how instrumental her father's advice was to her whenever she found herself at a low point in her life.

Key pieces of this advice were:

• Don't complain about your job in front of your children. This will teach them that they should expect to be unhappy in their work later in life and that this is normal. It's not.
• Don't let others get you down. Misery loves company: if you're looking for a crowd to accept you, find one that is happy and trying to make the best of their lives.
• Don't complain about something unless you're going to do something about it. Darci has created a rule for herself as a result of this and doesn't allow herself to complain about anything more than three times unless she's willing to follow up the complaint with a solution.

One interesting revelation that she found, being constantly on the road for her work: she has found that how hotel staff treat her children's belongings is an immediate indication of how happy they are in their roles.

Darci recounts a tale of staying in an out-of-the-way, forgotten motel in rural Saskatchewan and how she had met a maid who had worked nearly all her life there and was one of the most content people she had ever met. An example of how this was shown in her work was that she had taken the trouble, when she made up their room, of arranging the children's toys around their beds so that they would feel more at home – even going to the trouble of setting her son's toy robots in several well thought-out action sequences on the dresser. Never before or since has she ever experienced that level of work pride. She was clearly an example of someone who was full of happiness, and had more than enough to spread around for those who met her.

At the end of her uplifting talk, Darci left delegates with a quote from international author and speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

Is supplier development important? Dan Georgescu, Global Purchasing, Ford Motor Company of Canada, certainly thinks so. In his afternoon session, Dan discussed how supplier development could:

• Improve total cost reduction
• Improve quality
• Accelerate technological innovation
• Support sustainability
• Accelerate new product development

By employing supplier development strategies, Ford Motor Company has improved the quality of their cars, and now Ford’s newest vehicles have fewer problems than any other manufacturer, according to an article in The Detroit News, July 21, 2009.

Dan revealed that Ford found that by integrating suppliers into design processes they were able to accelerate technological innovation. Suppliers can be inserted at any or all points in the process from conception to build, test and pilot, whatever best suits the situation.

Dell, Dan revealed, managed to accelerate new product development by integrating their suppliers’ right in their plants.

“When we launch a new product, our suppliers’s engineers are right in our plants. If a customer has a problem, we can fix it in real time.”  - Michael Dell, CEO, Dell

Supplier development is certainly a worthwhile endeavour that will reap benefits for any organization that takes the time to thoroughly plan and execute the strategy.

Post by: King Siu, Communications Coordinator, PMAC

Most companies adopted “slash and burn” strategies over the last 18 months to deal with the pressures of the recent recession. In their morning session, Isabelle Leclerc, Senior Manager – Supply Chain, Deloitte and Mark Morrisey, Manager – Supply Chain, Deloitte shared more sustainable strategies for cost reduction that also support organizational growth.

Among others, one strategy they suggested for cost-reduction was adapting Deloitte’s approach to Spend Management for your procurement needs:

• Analyze Spend/Demand – Collect data (gather spend baseline and review contracts), confirm data with finance, analyze by category, leverage category expertise, identify patterns and trends in demand.
• Develop Category Profile – Analyze supplier market, develop requirements and specifications, identify vendors, identify savings levers and costs benchmarks, use industry expertise (innovative trends, competitive benchmarks, etc.)
• Develop Sourcing Strategy – Evaluate and select savings opportunities, develop detailed approaches, materials, negotiation strategy, decision criteria, implementation plan and process solutions; execute communications.
• Execute Sourcing Strategy – Conduct RFP/RFI process, lead response analytics/evaluation, recommend supplier, execute negotiation, develop/implement policy changes, end user communications, establish/renew supplier contacts.
• Execute and Monitor – Onboard new suppliers, develop benefits tracking process, monitor supplier performance, lead communications development and delivery, develop/track key performance indicators and benefits tracking process.