Name: Roger L. Weiss

Title: Senior Director, Enterprise Sourcing

Company: Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rockwell Collins is a global company providing aviation electronics for the world's aircraft manufacturers and more than 400 airline customers, as well as many of the world's military forces.

Reports to: David D. Young, Vice President, Material & Supply

Education: B.S., Industrial Technology, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Professional background: Weiss joined Rockwell Collins in 1987 as a buyer and has progressed through various positions of increasing responsibility, including purchasing management, master planning manager, general management and corporate commodity management. In July 2001 he assumed responsibility to develop and lead the enterprise sourcing organization.

Current duties: He is responsible for leading the enterprise sourcing organization and implementing best-in-class sourcing practices across Rockwell Collins. A centralized team is made up of commodity managers, business analysts and lean supply consultants focusing on more than $700 million of both direct materials and indirect goods/services. (Top five spend categories: Semiconductors, metal fab/machining, printed circuit boards, displays, travel.)

The team oversees the company's small business program, leads the supply chain management process and plays a key role in identifying and capturing sourcing synergies from business mergers and acquisitions.

Enterprise Sourcing's role: The role of the enterprise sourcing group is to lead strategic supply activities that continuously focus on reducing total cost of ownership. The group uses cross-functional sourcing teams to systematically evaluate costs and implement sourcing strategies for the enterprise. The teams are responsible for addressing quality, delivery, cost, technology and small business relationships as well as other criteria to support business goals. The organization's success relies heavily on the skills and knowledge of the cross-functional, cross-business commodity teams, the backbone of Rockwell Collins' supply-chain management process. Enterprise sourcing serves as a leader in the implementation of sourcing synergies after an acquisition is completed.

What it takes to succeed: Knowledge management, communication and talented employees. Weiss defines knowledge management as "Having the right information at the right time to make solid fact-based business decisions." With the availability of the Web and robust business systems, data and information are readily available. Converting data into usable knowledge is a key success factor for the sourcing team.

A second key success factor, Weiss says, is communication. The sourcing process at Rockwell Collins relies heavily on cross-functional/cross-business teams that must work in harmony as one voice to the supply base. Communication with internal as well as external stakeholders is another must. "The success of a sourcing organization is heavily dependent on the human resources behind it. Sourcing professionals today are required to be skilled in sales, marketing, finance and general management to truly uncover significant cost reduction opportunities."

Key challenges: Weiss sees short-term challenges in the area of "knowledge management". Systems and solutions are becoming more readily available but most are in their infancy or only offer a point solution, he says. "Another significant challenge is support and institutionalization of the sourcing process across the enterprise. Consistent processes and buying power of the enterprise versus a business unit approach can have significant impact to the bottom line."