Inside Supply Management Magazine

Procuring a Preview: March Issue

March 05, 2018

Here’s a sneak preview of the March issue of Inside Supply Management®, which is published nine times a year by Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®).

The feature articles:

●“Solving the Reshoring Riddle,” by senior writer Sue Doerfler analyzes how rising labor costs in China, reduced U.S. corporate taxes and regulations, and a push to bring manufacturing jobs back to America are among the reasons companies are reconsidering offshoring. While reshoring brings economic benefits, it also comes with challenges — most notably a skills gap.

A sidebar article looks at CelebriDucks, a San Rafael, California-based rubber duck manufacturer working to bring that industry back to America from overseas. Discover the challenges owner Craig Wolfe has encountered, and how he has addressed them.

●In “Driving Supply Chains Toward Sustainability,” learn how automakers can capitalize on disruptive opportunities to make their industry cleaner, healthier and more innovative. Guest authors Robert Sroufe, Ph.D., and Velika Talyarkhan, MBA, discuss promoting sustainability integration throughout the supply chain, the metrics to quantify it, and potential disruptive opportunities. A sidebar details the difficulty of monitoring sustainability integration and discusses how it has been accomplished in the automotive industry.

●We showcase two of the keynote speakers at ISM2018 — ISM’s Annual Conference May 6-9 in Nashville, Tennessee — in “Looking into the Future.” Doerfler’s article spotlights Arianna Huffington, CEO and founder of Thrive Global (and former president and editor-in-chief at Huffington Post Media Group); and John Rossman, a former Amazon executive and expert on digital disruption, innovation and the Internet of Things.

Also in the March issue:

●On the Perspectives pages, Dorina Vendramin, CPSM, C.P.M., CSCMP, a materials manager at Mondelēz Canada Inc. in Toronto, discusses (1) the traits procurement practitioners need to succeed and (2) how supply managers have become catalysts for change.

●Based on the business adage that “the customer is always right,” Net Promoter Score (NPS) is gaining increasing importance as a supply management metric. In the Insights column, senior copy editor/writer Dan Zeiger defines NPS and discusses how to use it.

●In the Competencies column, guest author Christopher Robert, CPSM, delves into the supplier qualification process, including finding potential suppliers, getting stakeholder involvement and conducting technical assessments.

●The Research column looks at blockchain. Guest authors Todd Taylor, Dale Rogers, Ph.D., and Raymundo Beristain-Barajas, MBA, discuss how supply managers must familiarize themselves with this potentially transformative technology — or risk being left behind.

Also, check out our usual array of critical information, including the February 2018 ISM® Report on Business®; international news on the Markets pages; the topical JIT; and logistics-focused Point2Point.

The March issue will arrive in your email inboxes next week and your mailboxes a few days later.