By Scott Oldendorph, C.P.M.
How is everyone's new year shaping up. Did you make any New Year's resolutions and if so have you been able to keep them. Promises are always hard to keep especially if the promise is to yourself because we are always harder on ourselves when we try to accomplish everything all the time. But if a promise is to be kept it is supported by an internal discipline and desire within yourself to meet that promise. If that promise is kept and satisfied the result is a warm feeling and rewarding smile.

Promises come in many forms and goals made to family, co-workers, employers, church, organizations and volunteerism. Have you been making so many promises that you have had to start making a "Promises Priority List" or has that become a "Promises Delete List". One promise not to forget this month, is to the one you love. Whatever you do don't forget Valentine's Day, it may be your last. Another promise to yourself was to become more involved in your career field of Purchasing by coming to the NAPM-SA pre-dinner free workshops and attending the dinner that follows. Both events offer a lot of educational benefit in your purchasing field and priceless purchasing network contacts to open up your purchasing career.

NAPM-SA really misses all of you that have missed out on our wonderful workshops and guest speakers.

More importantly we would like to thank all of you that have participated and joined us in these enriching events.

NAPM-SA would like to make a promise to you; that NAPM-SA will always try to bring you the best

Workshop, seminars and guest speakers that we can afford. This is your organization, what do you want to see and hear. Make a promise to yourself to tell us what you want and come to our events. Better yet, come volunteer and get involved. I promise to see you at the next event.

By Scott Oldendorph, C.P.M.
We have all experienced it at one time or another, the initial panic that sets in when our requester approaches us with their need for packaging and they are not quite sure what material, design or artwork they want. The requester wants your opinion on what to get, but more over they want your purchasing opinion on the material, design and artwork that they have initially chosen. Now the choice is to be politically correct by blindly embracing the requester's choices or from an educated position work with the requester to choose the correct material, design and artwork. But how does one get this A to Z packaging knowledge and experience?

On February 10^th at 7:00pm at the Doubletree Inn in Tucson, Tim Jobe from Gaylord Container will share of his 12 years of packaging experience to explain that a box is not just a box. Some of the topics to be covered are:

1. Current differences between mullen and high performance corrugated board.
2. Design and graphics like preprint, litho and flexo printing.
3. Inter packaging like foams, partitions, etc..
4. Point of Purchase packaging.
5. Basic types of packaging styles like corrugated, chipboard, and plastics.

Name ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Company _______________________________________________________#Attending________________________
 

Phone #__________________________________________________________________________________________

Preferred
Entree(s) _________________________________________________________________________________________

By Ralph L. Long, C.P.M
You're a purchasing professional and not interested in being in the Supply Management field but as sure as that is true, change is going to a effect all of us. Several professional organizations are considering adding supply management to the name, goals and visions of their organizations. Are we going to stand by and let that happen? Well maybe we won't have a choice.

In a recent talk by Dr. Dale Rogers, Dean of the Logistics School, University, of Nevada, Reno the future of purchasing is closely tied to supply management. The problem many of us have is with the traditional roles of purchasing and supply management. Purchasing buys things at the right price, quality and terms. Supply Management is in the physical handling, controlling, security and reporting of materials. Clear, understandable, easy to establish boundaries.

Wait, business is changing and our views may need to change. Companies are down sizing, cash flow is more important, products life cycle is reducing every day there may not be time for the traditional requisition/P.O. cycle. What do you think the life cycle of a pair of Nike shoes is? Actually 60-90 days. Think of all the products development, retooling, packaging materials, manufacturing, retail distributions, advertising and finally the product is on the shelve at your local dealer. Sixty to ninety days later a new product is coming down the line and replaces the model just released. What part do you think the buyer has in this sequence?

Another change that's taking place is that many companies expect the supplier to hold the inventory, assist in product development and form a partnership in the successful marketing of a product. Dell computer maintains five days of inventory and is planning to reduce to three days. Gateway advertises they make computers to order. These companies do not intend to maintain large inventories. The implications for purchasing is that we can not be just order placers, we must be more into supplier management. Establish contracts and let the user (customer) place the requirement. Most automobile manufactures out source as much as possible. Their interest is in managing the brand, assembly and marketing. Their suppliers must manage the inventory, react to rapid design change, and provide the parts directly to the assembly line as it's needed. Where was your "American" car made? Parts came from all over the world.

There is much talk today about virtual manufacturing. Many companies "manufacture" a product but don't devote a single resource to actually manufacturing. It's all done through – outsourcing. Guess who has the inside track – purchasing people. The typical adversarial relationship has been changing over the past few years to one of a partnership. Suppliers must be involved early, during the design stages. They must bare a share of the risk involved in rapid design changes, quality control and even product success. The purchasing people will have to manage the contracts, expedite the delivery and coordinate with suppliers in a way much different from the traditional role. Maybe purchasing professionals will be in supply management in a very broad context.

Procurement is in a position to manage most of the supply chain. Suppliers can manage the inventory. Purchasing needs to be an important part of the team concept from product development, marketing and actual delivery of product. The focus is changing from order placement to supplier management.

An example of the future for purchasing is the office supply contracts many companies use where an Office Depot or similar company provide next day delivery of office products. They maintain all the inventory. Procurement set the contract and monitors its operation. Generally customers (users) deal directly with the supplier for ordering. This type of operation could be expanded to effectively use the internet or web technology.

So purchasing and supply management or supply chain may be in our future. Government or private sector contract management, supplier management and involvement in the entire process seem to be the direction for our profession. The time is right for purchasing to advance to real professional status.