Eldon griggs has helped create some of the most cutting-edge products the U.S. military is using today: High-tech night vision flashlights and Kevlar gloves. And, recently, nonmilitary boots.

And he's not an engineer.

He's the vice president of global sourcing and purchasing at BlackHawk Products Group, in Norfolk, Va., a manufacturer of tactical products for military, law enforcement and consumer markets. And his involvement in product development points to what many procurement professionals see as the real potential their organization can bring to the business.

Griggs is at the center of a major business shift at BlackHawk to focus on new product development and broaden the scope of products the company offers. Griggs joined the company two years ago with the goal of forming a new global sourcing organization at BlackHawk that not only supports, but drives the company's efforts to develop new and broader product lines.

For its first 10 years, (then) BlackHawk Industries made tactical gear for military and law enforcement use, which provided steady, albeit sluggish growth. And its purchasing organization did mostly production buying.

But when the company saw the results of two new product line introductions, founder and CEO Mike Noell and his executive committee at the time planned a major shift in its business model to focus on development of new products for a broader customer base. The result was the creation of a new holding company, BlackHawk Products Group, to be the umbrella over the individual brands and drive more R&D and product development across the brands.

New product lines usually means new suppliers, but the existing structure within the company was not well-suited for finding the right global suppliers.

To drive the type of sourcing work needed for rapid product-line expansion, the executive team conceptualized a new, centralized global sourcing organization. Griggs was brought in and created that organization, divided into two distinct functions. The four-person purchasing group handles production buying and assists with forecasting, planning, scheduling of production and generating purchase orders.

The new four-member sourcing team focuses specifically on supplier discovery and development and collaboration with R&D in product development. The team is responsible for developing new supplier relationships and negotiating terms and conditions with those suppliers. In short, the pre-production sourcing work.

Griggs oversees both the sourcing and purchasing organizations and reports directly to CEO Noell.

"We had a 12-year employee in the organization from the beginning who helped us from the ground up," he says. "She understands every BlackHawk item and how and why it is made. She was the backbone in the creation of the new organization and helped us avoid a lot of small errors early on that could have slowed us up a lot."

The 200-employee company's recently launched Warrior Wear apparel line aimed at the nonmilitary market is a perfect example of how the new organizational structure functions. BlackHawk had committed to start the product line with boots, but the company's R&D and product teams had little knowledge or experience in the footwear business. With a clear vision of the product's goals, the newly created sourcing group consulted with some manufacturing service suppliers overseas that had worked on boots before and could recommend materials and processes to get the product off the ground quickly.

For example, the factory hired to produce the boots needed to be certified to buy and use Virbram outsoles, which product designers were set on using. "The sourcing organization found a manufacturing supplier in China that specialized in making boots," Griggs says, adding it was a supplier he had worked with in a previous position. "You can design the best boots in the world, but if your factory does not have the capability to make it, then you are stuck," he says.

The new Warrior Wear boots were launched in February. Future plans call for Warrior Wear pants, socks and jackets aimed at the consumer market.

The Warrior Wear line may not have gotten off the ground were it not for the new sourcing organization's stated focus to work closely with the R&D team. To be fair, BlackHawk has always had a strong R&D operation. After all, a product designed to protect a soldier or police officer requires the utmost attention to quality and design. But the R&D operations were challenged by the company's decision to broaden its product lines and, as a result, were significantly beefed up in 2004 with the acquisition of the Delta Design Group, a tactical gear R&D firm.

And to achieve the aggressive goals it had set in new product development, the sourcing organization needed to be involved in every step of the product development process and speed up the time to market for new products.

Today at BlackHawk, the product development process starts with a meeting between the brand manager, a sourcing representative and the R&D team to review the overall product concept and make as many product and materials decisions as possible at the earliest stage.

Griggs is also a member of the company's five-person executive committee made up of CEO Noell and four vice presidents who provide Griggs and his organization detailed insight into the company's goals and initiatives, allowing the sourcing organization to align its goals in step.

"We on the executive committee sit down every Friday morning and review all the major business issues and/or strategic initiatives and address them at the top level," Griggs says. "We share information and make the major decisions for the company. We've been doing that for more than a year now."

Global sourcing is a unique challenge for companies making products that will be sold to the Department of Defense. Everything sold to the DoD has to be classified in one of three ways: Those 100% U.S.-made (called "Berry Amendment compliant"); Products sold under the GSA designation, which are made only from materials bought from a short list of companies (which doesn't include China, Taiwan or Eastern European countries); and COTS, or commercial off-the-shelf products, which can be sourced or made anywhere.

Every DoD contract specifies which of these three classifications it will accept. And if it's a Berry Amendment or GSA contract, the amount of overseas materials or production used in the product is extremely limited—which means the cost savings achieved through global sourcing for those products are also limited.

As BlackHawk began to explore new product lines to develop, Noell and his team decided to target the COTS category and the consumer market, which would allow more global sourcing and savings. "For example, the outdoor market is a great market to offer COTS products to. Those customers are looking for the right price and not too concerned with which country it's made in," says Griggs. Hence, the Warrior Wear product line.

In addition to materials sourcing, BlackHawk outsources the majority (87%) of its manufacturing. Right now, BlackHawk uses 50 different manufacturing service providers in eight countries. Three U.S. factories in North Carolina, Montana and Idaho handle a mere 13% of production. But in either situation, BlackHawk maintains control of the bill of materials and does quality assurance on materials both at the factory and at the warehouse.

Finding overseas suppliers is not a new challenge for Griggs, who has been sourcing globally for 10 years in various past positions. He feels global sourcing is mostly about networking—finding the right supplier from past connections, either previous suppliers or sourcing agents on the ground (see sidebar on evaluating overseas suppliers). He also says trade fairs and trade development councils in overseas markets are providing more leads today than ever before. Unlike many manufacturers that are focused on supplier rationalization, Griggs says BlackHawk's supplier list is expanding continually to support new product lines.

"The main tip I would give buyers looking to source more overseas is 'take your time,'" Griggs says. "Be patient and don't be forced into selecting a sub-par supplier because of time constraints. Once a supplier is selected, you're committed probably for a year, so selecting the right one early on is crucial."

One of Griggs' goals for 2006 is to develop a more formal supplier evaluation process to track performance of its new and existing suppliers more closely. BlackHawk is very focused on developing stronger relationships with its best suppliers for long-term benefits.

"In the long run, as they prove themselves and our business with them grows, we'll typically get better costs and leadtimes and some extra help when we need it," says Griggs. "We're definitely moving more in that direction."