Strategic Alliances for Supply Chain Success
In building an effective collaborative relationship with your supply chain partner the one thing that will help you the most to improve communication is your ability to understand the value your supply chain partner needs to receive from the relationship. As an example, your procurement department might believe that your supply partner should cut their price so low that they no longer make a profit. This is simply crazy.
If you make an effort to understand the total value your supply partner needs and help them to receive that total value package, they will perceive you as a great partner and communication will become easier. I am not suggesting that you give away the bank, but rather only put your energies into activities, services, and so forth that delivers the value to your supply partner that they want.
Supply Chain Improvements
Just-in-time inventory purchasing and supplying as exemplified by the famous relationship between Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble has continued to prove successful. Home Depot and Dell Computers have also built powerful alliances with their suppliers for cost saving just-in-time inventory in similar applications. You can do this too. You can develop closer relationships with your supply chain partners.
Below are additional supply chain improvement areas available to you through strategic alliance relationships:
1. Management of supply channel conflict
2. On-time product delivery
3. Prompt response to complaints
4. Greater consistency in parts, supplies, semi-assembled, and completed products
5. Detailed agreement as to handling of product problems and customer complaints
6. Improved supply chain productivity
7. Specific (quarterly, yearly, etc.) volume commitments
8. Key contacts that are dedicated to your account
9. Improved supplier loyalty
10. Prompt response to quote requests and price problems
11. Confidentiality of shared business strategy
Related Tags: conflict resolution, manufacturing, sales, distribution, partner, strategic alliance, supply chain success
Ed Rigsbee, CSP is a leading national authority on collaborative business relationships. He is the author of: PartnerShift-How to Profit from the Partnering Trend Developing Strategic Alliances The Art of Partnering. All his books are available at Amazon.com. Rigsbee has over 1,000 published magazine articles to his credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade association conferences across North America. Contact him for your next meeting at http://www.rigsbee.com At http://www.rigsbee.com/downloadaccess.htm, you may access a partner quiz, chapter one of Developing Strategic Alliances and other partnering resources that will help you to better select an alliance partner.
Your Article Search Directory : Find in ArticlesRecent articles in this category:
- Strategic Planning Begins With a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement
A sure-fire way to start the success of your business strategic planning process is to identify th - Your Mission Statement and Vision Statement - Getting Your Message Out There
Congratulations. You have created your business mission and vision statements. They are clear, defi - Offshore Company Incorporation
An offshore corporation is the one which is incorporated in an overseas country in order to reap t - Risk Assessment and Management
Entrepreneurship is defined as set of different activities that consist the business development. - Making Money in an Economic Downturn
If you're a savvy business person, you understand that an economic downturn is precisely the time y - The Best Promotional Giveaways for Trade Shows: the Three C's
Participating in a trade show is an excellent way to give your business a high degree of exposure. - Writing a Business Plan
When it comes to writing a business plan you need to remember that it should focus on four separate - How to Register a Trademark - Employing the Services of a Trademark or Patent Lawyer
Innovations come up everyday and people are always bent on discovering something new and making it - How to Create the Perfect Survey
 DOPreserve anonymity. If the employees identities are tied to their responses, they may - Tired of That Tired Old Brochure?
"Brochures are one of the cornerstones of effective advertising, but not all brochures are equally
Most viewed articles in this category:
- How to Use Radionics to Help You Make the Right Business Decision
Remember what it was like to be in school? It may not have seemed like it at the time, but things w - Strategic Planning Before Grant Writing
People sign up for my grant writing workshops to learn to write grant proposals. I often find they h - The Balanced Scorecard
The Divide between Strategy Formulation & Strategy Execution The vast majority of the world's busin - Business Sellers - Beware of the C Corp Asset Sale
We recently completed a Merger and Acquisition engagement to sell our client to a large publicly tra - Why Business Incentives Work
In 2005 General Motors launched a consumer incentive program after a few years of sluggish sales. Fr - Helpful Hints to Implementing a Differentiation Strategy
I frequently get asked "how can I differentiate my product or service when there are a lot of compet - Change Happens - Anticipate It - Embrace It
Like everyone else, I have received countless emails with long lists extolling nostalgic virtues fro - Definite Goals And The Burning Ambition To Achieve Them: How To Be A Winner
Did you know that the vast majority of truly successful people in the world have clearly stated goal - Is Succession Planning in Your Future?
Until recently, many CEOs and companies in general had not thought much about succession planning. B - Strategic Alliances, Collaborating Through a New Window
Strategic alliances are commonplace today among organizations both large and small. The advantages a
