Teledyne Laars

By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/20/1999

Title: Manager, Strategic Resources

Company: Teledyne Laars, manufacturer of pool/spa heaters and hydronic boilers, Moorpark, Calif.

Reports to: Keith McQueen, vice president of operations

Professional background: A wide variety of jobs color Miller's experience, ranging from a position as an electronics technician to a vice president/general manager of a company. He has worked at international and domestic locations. He also has been a trainer and professional speaker in purchasing and other fields. He has taught electronics, a number of different social-science subjects, purchasing subjects, and contract negotiations.

Duties: Until October, 1998, Teledyne Laars' purchasing department was centralized at headquarters in Moorpark. With Miller's help, Laars chose to look at purchasing through a more global perspective, and the department was reorganized. Now tactical purchasing functions take place at each of the six different locations; the strategic side is handled at Moorpark headquarters. Miller says, "I run the strategic resources department. We manage the contracts with all strategic suppliers for the company. We also get involved in strategic product management." Miller, who has been at Teledyne Laars for three and a half years, and the rest of the Laars purchasing group oversee the purchase of $70 million/year in various commodities. Their top six suppliers provide combustion-control devices, raw copper tube, injection-molded plastic parts, galvanized sheet steel, electronic circuit boards and gray iron castings.

Purchasing's role: "There has been a paradigm shift in our organization. Many people in senior management are starting to view purchasing as a key component in improving the company's financial performance. Purchasing used to be very traditional in the sense that it was primarily transactional. We now are looking at the strategic value of purchasing in terms of adding assistance in sourcing new technologies, doing acquisition assessments, and being involved in things that have a long-term financial impact on the company."

What's challenging about purchasing: "To communicate the need for strategic vision in the purchasing arena to people who are non-purchasing professionals and to communicate what the profession is and what it does for an organization. Some people may say, 'my only duty is to negotiate the best buy, to combat the savvy salesman.' But I have the responsibility to sell the profession back to the organization and communicate the value that the purchasing profession provides."

Suppliers' changing role: "Suppliers have an evolving role in our organization. They went from being a strictly at arm's length transactional type of relationship into identifying who the strategic suppliers are, getting earlier supplier involvement and establishing strategic alliances with key suppliers. Currently there is a greater emphasis on having them bring in new concepts and ideas.

Future purchasing trends: "There's a continuing trend of segregating the purchasing function into tactical and strategic roles. Once an organization does that, tactical roles will be absorbed into operations, and what is left over is the strategic portion, which will become more involved in helping the company control its total spend. Purchasing professionals are going to have to recognize that if they are going to stay in the purchasing field, they will have to get involved in more strategic projects, including non-traditional spend areas."