CAPS launches Project 10X to move sourcing/supply on fast track
By Jim Morgan -- Purchasing, 11/4/1999
Effective Jan 1, Dr. Robert M. Monczka will become director of the new Project 10X research program at the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (caps). His official title will be Director of Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain Strategy Development at caps. In addition, he will be a research professor of supply chain management in the College of Business at Arizona State University, where he will also hold a napm professorship.Project 10X was established by caps with the aim of identifying and providing senior purchasing/sourcing and supply chain executives and executive management with information about emerging strategies and practices in purchasing, sourcing, and supply chain management and implementation. According to Monczka, the project will be looking out continuously on a worldwide, 5-10 year forecast basis to provide insights into critical sourcing/supply chain strategies and practices and how they are being implemented. Project 10X's research will be aimed at learning what what needs to be done in the future to achieve world-class excellence and achieve up to 10X performance improvements in sourcing and supply management.
Monczka, contributing editor to Purchasing Magazine and Professor of Strategic Purchasing at Michigan State University, has for 25 year researched, taught, and consulted about sourcing and supply chain management strategies and implementation processes. Over the years he has advised senior executives in more than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, and authored five books and more than 100 researched-based articles on the subject.
Monczka, who also founded and directed the Global Procurement and Supply Chain Benchmarking Initiative (gebn) at the Eli Broad School of Management at Michigan State will retire from teaching duties and become professor emeritus as of January 1. gebn will be terminated at the same time.
As explained by Dr. Monczka, the purpose of gebn (which was primarily a benchmarking project) has been completed. Project 10X is the "next logical step. Building on experience from gebn and the caps vision, we are building an infrastructure with the ability to take our research into the next century." Project 10X, says Monczka, will have as its focus the "encouragement of some forward thinking processes and approaches that can be leveraged for the development of sound integrated, sourcing, and supply management strategies based on best strategies and changing economics of the next decade."
As the director of Project 10X, Dr. Monczka will oversee all aspects of the project including the collaboration of vision, strategy, and practice planning sessions and field research. Working with a hand-picked team of researchers, Monczka expects to build the concepts and develop the models used in research and put together vision and strategy groups--roundtables of executives coming together through face-to-face and electronic collaboration.
Project 10X will be financed by contributions of caps and individual donor companies. Contributors will have access to the ongoing flow of results from the research team through print and Web-based information, executive purchasing roundtables, and through the Supply Chain Assessment System (scas). Using scas, contributors will be able to track how they measure up against emerging strategies and best practices on process and results-focused assessment questions.
Project 10X, says Monczka, should provide the opportunity to focus on establishing a future vision of sourcing and supply chain management on an ongoing basis. It identifies emerging and future strategies and best-practice examples of implementation. It will "pull together a number of key people and organizations in a way that will enable a very focused effort.
"With the support of caps and napm, our experienced staff researchers expect to develop information about the emerging future strategies that can lead toward some 10X improvements. We hope to develop some metrics against which companies, worldwide, will be able to judge their effectiveness."
caps was established in 1986 to address the need for industry-oriented research in purchasing. Headed by Dr. Philip Carter, caps is sponsored by the National Association of Business Management (napm) and the College of Business at Arizona State University. Information generated by caps is provided to purchasing organizations around the country. caps strives to provide leading-edge research in support of the procurement and supply field. In addition to benchmarking and "best practices," caps conducts focus study research that provides in-depth analysis of purchasing trends. caps International Executive Purchasing Roundtables are held to assess research needs and provide networking opportunities for purchasing executives. For more information, see caps' Web site at www.capsresearch.org.
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