Long leadtimes still a thorn in sides of buyers
By Tim Minahan -- Purchasing, 8/13/1998 2:00:00 AM
The following article is the final installment of a three-part series on the sourcing trends and practices of OEM buyers. The series is based on a comprehensive survey of OEM buyers around the country.
While price negotiating remains a key component of purchasing's day-to-day duties, procurement professionals are more concerned about managing strategic issues.
In fact, when asked to list the biggest problems facing purchasing today, few buyers even mentioned price. Instead, the large majority of procurement professionals responding to a recent Purchasing Magazine survey see reducing leadtimes in the supply chain as their single biggest challenge.
Sixty-six percent of buyers rank leadtime reduction as their most pressing problem today. That explains why half of the survey respondents cite leadtimes, response times, and delivery as the most important things they want suppliers to improve.
"Suppliers need to improve customer service and response time," says David Duprey, a buyer for Anaren Microwave Inc., a producer of microwave-signal processing devices for satellite and wireless communications and defense electronics based in East Syracuse, N.Y. "They need to do a better job of providing stock available to leadtimes."
Buyers will also have a role in trimming leadtimes. In fact, many respondents say purchasing should be the catalyst to spark suppliers and internal operations to shorten leadtimes and delivery cycles across the supply chain.
"Procurement professionals will need to take on an advisory role regarding supplier and leadtime management," says one purchasing agent at a Georgia-based manufacturer of scientific equipment.
Buyers are also feeling pressure to reduce their companies' overall costs. More than half of survey respondents see "controlling total costs" as a leading challenge.
Other problems purchasing faces today: controlling prices, managing inventory levels, and finding and developing world-class suppliers.
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