Lean Demand-Driven Procurement How to Apply Lean Thinking to Your Supply Management Processes

While there are many books written on the basics of the "supply" side of the supply chain (i.e. strategic sourcing, sourcing/procurement, and purchasing), there hasn?t been much written on those areas from a Lean perspective. Considering that supply chain costs, primarily procurement and transportation, can range from 50 to 70% of sales, it's surprising that this area has not been fully explored. As a result, some companies tend to place too much emphasis on the traditional focus of reducing material costs instead of process improvement.

Lean Demand-Driven Procurement: How to Apply Lean Thinking to Your Supply Management Process details the basic supply management concepts and processes (i.e. sourcing, procurement, and purchasing) in an easy-to-understand format in combination with various process improvement tools, methodologies, best practices, examples, and cases written from a Lean perspective. It focuses and pinpoints ways to identify waste on the supply side through improved processes and, in some cases, technology.

Applying Lean principles to procurement and purchasing processes identies non-traditional sources of waste, and in some cases, creates a paradigm shift that results in additional benets to the entire supply chain.

About the Author

PART I Lean Demand-Driven Procurement: Overview

Chapter 1 Introduction: Why You Need a Lean and Agile, Demand-Driven Supply Management Process

Chapter 2 History and Importance of Procurement and Purchasing in Adding Value to an Organization

Chapter 3 Supply Management Organization and Structure

Chapter 4 Procurement Strategy Development and Application

Chapter 5 Issues and Opportunities in Supply Management

Chapter 6 Lean Procurement

PART II Supply Management Processes

Chapter 7 Strategic Sourcing

Chapter 8 Procurement

Chapter 9 Purchasing

Chapter 10 Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Indirect Procurement

PART III Tools and Techniques for a Leaner Supply Management Process

Chapter 11 Cost Management

Chapter 12 Contract and Performance Management and Ethics

Chapter 13 e-Procurement and Other Supply Management Technologies

Chapter 14 Procurement Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

PART IV Lean Ahead

Chapter 15 Global Procurement and Its Impact on the Lean

Chapter 16 The Future of Lean Procurement

Appendix A: A Lean (Philosophy) for Life

References

Index

Paul Myerson has been a successful change catalyst for a variety of clients and organizations of all sizes.

Paul has over 30 years’ experience in Supply Chain strategies, systems and operations that have resulted in bottom-line improvements for companies such as General Electric, Unilever, and Church and Dwight (Arm & Hammer).

Paul holds an MBA in Physical Distribution from Temple University and a BS in Logistics from The Pennsylvania State University. He has an extensive background as a Supply Chain professional, consultant, teacher (currently Instructor, Management and Decision Sciences at Monmouth University), and author.

Mr. Myerson currently writes a column for Inbound Logistics magazine on the topic of “Lean Supply Chain,” which can be found at http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article-type/commentary/the-lean-supplychain/, as well as a blog for Industry Week magazine at http://www.industryweek.com/author/Paul-Myerson. He is also the author of a Lean Supply Chain Simulation Training game and training package available at http://www.enna.com/lean_supplychain. Myerson’s personal website is http://www.supplychainsmarts.com.