In a rather shocking story that came out late last week, Johnson Controls, the interiors and seating system Tier 1 automotive supplier, sued four suppliers for levying steel surcharges on them, alleging the suppliers had violated their purchasing contract. The story is rather shocking not because automotive suppliers have been squeezed considerably since the start […]

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This is a true story: I didn’t really understand what a subwoofer was until my husband informed me that he had purchased a cabinet to be placed under our new flat screen television. Since I was in charge of all “design elements” of our home remodel project, I was outraged at this purchase, especially considering […]

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Like some of you, I read a lot of procurement trade magazines. Many of these magazines sit un-read next to my bed stand, primarily because they lack a catchy title to get me to stay awake long enough to read. But every once in awhile, I come across a story with a few nuggets of […]

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A colleague recently penned an excellent piece on strategies buyers can use to mitigate cost increases.  Herb Shields, the author, suggests several tactics purchasing professionals may use to delay and/or mitigate price increases imposed by suppliers. Some of these tactics include rejecting “dear customer” letters to looking at substitute products or delaying decision-making. At MetalMiner, we often write […]

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We reported earlier that steel prices may have peaked and our own anecdotal evidence also supports this claim. We understand that one major steel producer shipped July orders early because of weak demand. And all of this ‘demand’ that everyone seems to talk about, is well, not exactly meeting expectations.
Every single steel producer and probably […]

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Michael Lamoureux (AKA: The Doctor of Sourcing Innovation) is coming to Chi-town later next week and we’ve decided to hold a blogger get together on Friday night, July 11th. Lisa Reisman will also be coming along as well to prove to the world that women in the metals business can hold their own at the […]

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Have you noticed as the summer vacation period approaches the level of activity tends to gradually decline? Maybe this week is worse because we have a (well deserved!) July 4 Friday coming up and the prospect of a long weekend. It’s times like this when business is a little slack that good sourcing practitioners take […]

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I had the joy this past weekend of flying on a fully packed United flight from Chicago to Boston. For those of you who know me, you might be surprised to see that I was flying United after my public tirade on United but I flew on points as did the rest of my family. […]

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This weekend we had a chance to catch up with a partner of ours, German Dominguez, who is based out of Juarez, Mexico. German sources parts on behalf of American companies. This is Part Two of a Two Part interview. You can read Part One here.
Question: Based on your success it might appear as though […]

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This weekend we had a chance to catch up with a partner of ours, German Dominguez, who is based out of Juarez, Mexico. German sources parts on behalf of American companies. This is Part One of a Two Part interview.
Question: How many programs have you quoted on during the past 4-5 months where the buyer […]

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