Purchasing - June 17, 1999
Features
Rapid growth changes rules for purchasing
The strong push by manufacturing companies to stick to basic core competencies and outsource other activities is bringing a new rigor and discipline to purchasing managers who source and oversee suppliers that provide contract manufacturing services.
- BUYLINES
- GRASSROOTS BUSINESS SURVEY
- Buyers remain optimistic, even as prices trend up
- MURRAY'S LAW
- How to lose over $4 million
- PURCHASING SURVEY
- Team sourcing takes hold, but firms need more practice
- Who's news
- THOMSON multimedia
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT
- CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS--PART II
- Are you ready for TEAMS?
- CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
- ELECTRONICS
- Leaders in cable/harness assembly
- CMs continue in aquisition mode in '99
- PCB assembly holds lion's share of CM market
- CM growth brings new challenges for purchasers
- High-tech buyers see tidal wave of opportunity
- Alphabetical Listing
- Key to CM: service, service
- Top CMs by sales growth
- Leaders in board assembly
- Leaders in modules
- Top 10 CMs take a back seat in productivity
- Leaders in box build
- Top CMs by sales per employee
- CMs see strong demand for build-to-order
- Computers, Peripherals & Software
- BRIEFS
- Reseller ASAP introduces custom information option
- Compaq Prosignia promises price, performance values
- DESKTOP PERSONAL COMPUTERS
- Will PC demand diminish in the fourth quarter?
- PURCHASING NOTES
- Prices continue to fall for workstations. Dell has lowered tags on its Precision WorkStations by up to 17%
- Software buyers need to be aware that 81% of commercial packaged software is not yet Y2K compliant
- Compaq slashed prices on its new AlphaServer DS20 by up to 20%
- Pushing PC prices below $1,000 for corporate buyers is Intel's new Celeron 466MHz processor and new 810 chip set
- Oracle promises to beef up its support service in response to user complaints
- Flexibility is more important to users than mobility when it comes to the PC purchase
- Watch for Y2K failures as some businesses begin a new fiscal year on July 1
- SOFTWARE SOURCING STRATEGIES
- Ready to buy online? Tackle systems first
- ELECTRONICS PURCHASING
- DISRTRIBUTION WATCH
- Brave new 'nomadic' world coming
- Y2K will lower PC shipments in fourth quarter
- Double-digit growth forecast for chips
- BTO and CM are top PC supply chain models
- DISTRIBUTION WATCH
- Non-franchised distributors form global trading exchange
- Steady growth ahead for ceramic capacitor market
- ELECTRONIC BUYING CONDITIONS
- Fewer buyers will increase order volumes
- Chip tags fall
- SEMICONDUCTORS
- MCU market to bounce back
- China: The next DRAM player?
- Electronics Purchasing
- CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
- CM buyers look to reduce TOTAL COST
- ELECTRONICS BRIEFS
- Need2Buy.com is launched
- Dii buys facility
- Moto sells components group
- New Internet chip unveiled
- Avnet has online ordering
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- MRO/DISTRIBUTION
- NEWS
- All Graybar locations are now ISO 9002 registered
- Twenty Motion Industries facilities in the U.S. and Canada have achieved ISO 9002 registration
- Boeing has signed a five-year agreement with Industrial Distribution Group
- MRO costs have BIG impact on profits!
- WESCO Distribution is acquiring the assets and business of Liberty Electrical Supply Company of Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Fairmont Supply is opening a new customer service center at Evansville, Ind.
- OFFICE PRODUCTS & BUSINESS SYSTEMS
- BRIEFS
- Toshiba previews digital copiers
- FACSIMILES
- Growing role for faxes in digital connected era
- PURCHASING NOTES
- The Business Technology Association presented Hitachi Koki Imaging Solutions with an Innovation award
- Staples Inc. has signed a lease for a multichannel distribution center in Stockton, Calif.
- In 2000, the BTA's 75th national conference will be held at the Tampa Convention Center
- THE NETWORKED OFFICE
- BTA provides digital training for dealers
- What do buyers look for in a national dealer? SERVICE
- ON THE INTERNET
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- INTEGRAL & FHP MOTORS
- Motor prices not revving up, supply remains good
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- PURCHASING HOTLINE
- Electronics buyers: Look for microprocessor pricing wars to heat up this summer
- Oil prices will slip in coming months
- Get up to speed on the Internet with Purchasing's new book on Internet-based procurement.
- Look for cell phones with expanded capabilities to be available this summer
- Do you need a law degree to be an effective purchasing professional?
- Keep an eye on effort by group of travel-service providers to create e-commerce standard.
- Look for Intel and other chip makers to acquire plants in Japan.
- Rate increases in eastbound cargo from Asia could be in trouble
- Expect prices for personal computers to slip through year-end, but not dramatically
- Don't miss the 1999 Purchasing Conference
- Are you up to the competitive challenges of the electronics marketplace?
- Imports from Asia increased only slightly in April
- Approach ERP systems implementation as a new business venture, not a typical IT project.
- Are you able to squeeze out waste in office buying?
- Keep an eye on legislation that would give more teeth to electronic contracts.
- Expect renewal of semiconductor deal with Japan by end of July.
- Count on prices for fax/copiers to drop at least 10% by the end of 1999
- ECONOMY
- The months of April-May have brought a rash of mildly alarming news on the inflation front
- A consensus of 29 professional forecasters queried recently by the National Association of Business Economists
- The Federal Open Market Committee (fomc) of the Federal Reserve showed that it's taking recent inflation signals seriously
- Last call for Crystal Ball!
- Housing starts fell 10.1% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.57 million units
- The U.S. trade gap rose to a new record high of -$19.7 billion in March
- MARKETS
- Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, may be moving into the ferroalloys market
- Natural rubber supplies will be plentiful this year
- Eastman Chemical Co. of Kingsport, Tenn., plans to acquire ink maker Lawter International
- Last summer's heat wave and power shortages have boosted domestic demand for industrial gas turbines
- The boom in demand for industrial gas turbines will continue at double-digit annual growth rates through next decade
- The Agriculture Department says cotton stocks will rise more than 50% to 5.5 million 480-lb bales in the 1999-2000 crop year
- Semiconductor maker Intel has introduced its fastest chip yet for the low end of the PC market
- Machine tool orders totaled $1.2 billion in the first three months of 1999
- The possibility now seems remote that U.S. ethylene producers can rebalance supply and demand
- PRICES
- OPEC chief Youssef Yousfi says speculators influenced crude oil prices in recent weeks
- Average tin prices in Malaysia have risen gradually this year from $2.27/lb in January to $2.51 in May
- Polypropylene prices are all over the place, ranging from as low as 21¢/lb for preferred customers to 29¢/lb for small-volume accounts
- Most major North American producers have announced price hikes of $40/ton for roll bond paper used to make business forms
- Demand from utilities has been light, so the June U.S. spot price for natural gas to industrial customers is stuck at just shy of $2.45
- U.S. newsprint prices dropped $30/metric ton recently
- Gold has been selling at a 20-year low following news that Britain plans to unload more than half of its 715 metric ton gold reserve
- Citing strong demand plus increases in raw materials and transportation costs, Alcan Aluminum boosted its list prices for common alloy sheet products
- There is some evidence that spot zinc sales may have peaked at 54¢
- Samancor of South Africa, one of the world's largest makers of the ferrochrome alloy used to make stainless steel harder and rust resistant, plans to cut output 15%
- Intel has slashed prices on Pentium III 450- and 500-MHz chips, and has begun selling a new 550-MHz version
- Producers keep pushing for more polyvinyl chloride (PVC) price increases, but the market is responding only slowly
- Weyerhaeuser is telling customers worldwide to expect higher prices for northern bleached softwood kraft (nbsk) market pulp
- A wide gap has opened between U.S. prices for flat-rolled stainless steel and prices in Asia and Europe
- Seven corrugating medium producers in North America have announced price hikes for this summer
- Hewlett-Packard has announced sweeping price cuts of up to 25% across its entire range of Intel processor-based personal computers
- Two major suppliers of carbonless paper, Appleton Papers and Mead, have announced June price increases
- PURCHASING SOFTWARE NEWS
- Purchasing Hotline
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- LEADTIMES
- BUYING PLANS/PRICE EXPECTATIONS
- FORECASTS
- Operating rates creep up
- Labor supply remains taut
- Output expands in spring
- STRATEGIC COST INSIGHTS
- Price-cost slash in printing
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