In numerous articles that I have written over the years, I have made reference to three concepts that should once and for all be removed from the supply chain vernacular.
I am of course talking about Maverick Spend, Change Management and Vendor Rationalization.
In a world where both public and private sector organizations are looking for a marketplace “that never stops growing and always allows both contract and non-contract participation,” these ideas – which have always been bad by the way – are the antithesis of the new B2B world.
Maverick spend, which I contend is an “artificially created problem that was the unintended consequence of poorly designed ERP procurement platforms” that limited supplier engagement, reflected the fact that buyers were being forced to go against what they knew from experience was a better route to achieving savings.
As a result of this understandable resistance, the response from industry experts was to introduce the “change management” initiative in an effort to enforce compliance. Adding insult to injury of course is the fact that these experts actually charged for this latter service. This to me is tantamount to someone asking for gas money as their car is going over the cliff.
As for vendor rationalization/compression strategies, the only thing that I can think of for this less than stellar idea is that once industry experts realized that their platforms actually dissuaded suppliers from working with your company, they had to come up with an explanation. It is the ultimate example of someone attempting to turn lemons into lemonade . . . well bad tasting lemonade, but you have to admire the effort.
Anyway, those are my three pet peeve concepts that should forever be retired. What’s yours? What are the three supply chain ideas you believe are synonymous with a Mettman Manufacturing Company product.
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Procurement Insights 
Nick @ Market Dojo eSourcing
January 7, 2014
Phasing out the consultancy lingo and concepts is a great idea, especially the likes of ‘maverick spend’ and ‘change management’. Supplier rationalisation does have some merits as an activity, especially when individuals have the remit to purchase goods and services from any supplier of their choosing which can lead to a long list of suppliers. I even rationalise my vendors at home, e.g. buying my gas and electricity from the same supplier, or my TV, Broadband and telephone as one package.
One of my own bug-bears is the concept of ‘supply chain transformation’, which seems to be a big buzzword these days. Supply chains are constantly moving and evolving, and have done since the idea of supply chain was founded. What is this transformation of which they speak? In my mind it basically means, “we’ll do a review of your supply chain and come up with some nice ideas to improve it.”