Every day companies leave billions of dollars in invisible, unrealized savings on the table because of poor supply chain management practices. Now supply management experts Dave Nelson, Patricia E. Moody, and Jonathan Stegner show not only how leading companies recoup these savings through their mastery of target costing, value engineering, and supplier development, but how supply chain management -- the discipline of acquiring and moving material -- has become a manufacturing company's hottest competitive weapon.
Based on a survey of 247 purchasing managers and more than 1,000 hours of interviews and on-site visits, the authors have selected ten top firms whose supply management pioneers excel at twenty "best practices." With cases and stories, Nelson, Moody, and Stegner show how these leading-edge purchasing departments at American Express, SmithKline Beecham, DaimlerChrysler, Harley-Davidson, Honda of America, IBM, John Deere, Whirlpool, Flextronics, and Sun Microsystems have put into place pathbreaking processes and procedures. Here, for example, described in step-by-step detail, are Chrysler's SCORE program and Honda's strategic sourcing strategy that saved the companies billions. The book also includes a crucial section on the next stage of supplier development that will involve the sourcing and allocation of ideas as well as materials.
The authors provide concrete, practical steps to improvement that any supply chain manager can take to successfully implement these best practices. The Purchasing Machine will be required reading for logistics, purchasing, and procurement managers in hundreds of thousands of companies. The authoritative nature of the authors' source material is certain to make this the single most important and practical reference on best purchasing practices for years to come.

Most manufacturing companies with batch-and-queue "push" production systems have been blindsided by today's consumer who expects quality products and services delivered on demand and customized to individual taste. In "The Perfect Engine, " manufacturing experts Anand Sharma and Patricia E. Moody describe for the first time how leading "pull" production pioneers build to order by reducing inventory, decreasing cycle time, minimizing floor space, and eliminating waste.
Drawing on scores of examples and detailed case studies of three leaders in the demand economy field -- Maytag, Pella, and Mercedes-Benz -- Sharma and Moody demonstrate how these companies achieved astonishing results using the pathbreaking LeanSigmaSM Transformation. Combining lean production and quality elements from the famous Six Sigma process, LeanSigma produces annual productivity gains of 15 percent to 20 percent. In addition, the authors show, inventory turns more than quadruple; cycle times drop by more than 70 percent; and floor space reductions of 30 percent to 50 percent are not uncommon. Sharma and Moody provide immensely readable explanations of key technical aspects of the process--for example, how cell-based one-piece flow can replace batch-and-queue with dramatically improved lead times and inventory turnover. A chapter on a revolutionary design technique the authors call Design for LeanSigma or 3P (product and production preparation) shows how to build flexibility into the product design and the production systems at very low risk, which will be especially helpful when forecasts and customer orders deviate from original projections, as they usually do. Further, the Design for LeanSigma method is devised to produce profitability at short-term volume projections, which makes it a perfect tool for the new demand economy. Essential, timely, and important, "The Perfect Engine" is perfect reading for this new manufacturing era.

""Breakthrough Partnering should be required reading for anyone involved in supply management or training."" - Paul Brault, Corporate Director of Supplier/Customer Training Motorola University ""Breakthrough Partnering is loaded with contemporary examples of supplier partnerships and it contrasts them with the 'old time religion' of bidding, leverage, and voluminous planning. Readers should come away with insights on how to transition from their old tenets to a newfound faith in the power of teamwork in supplier partnerships."" - Robert W. Hall, co-founder of Assn. For Mfg. Excellence ""Provides people involved with an outsourcing strategy in manufacturing with an excellent, hands-on approach.... Breakthrough Partnering should be part of the implementation process for companies looking for practical experience in manufacturing partnerships."" - Robert LeValley, Director of East Coast Operations, Solectron, Inc. ""Breakthrough Partnering offers an accurate account of how successful companies create good customer/supplier relationships in today's World-Class market."" - Jeff Shaw, VP of Operations, Picture Tel Corporation

How will autonomous agents, emergent systems, and chaos theory change the way we live and work in the twenty-first century? As today's manufacturing and production systems grow increasingly complex, tomorrow's science of complexity will produce paradoxically simple solutions, argue technology experts Patricia Moody and Richard Morley in this astonishing vision of the year 2020.

Containing both cutting-edge insights and simple truths that provide a roadmap to the future of business -- and illustrated by case examples from such companies as Motorola, Honda, GM, Solectron, Intel, Silicon Graphics, Modicon, Flavors, NeXT, Japanese Railway, and Andover Controls -- "The Technology Machine" challenges readers to understand the spirit and core drivers of growth: technology, knowledge, and individual excellence.

By combining rigorous research with their extensive experience with technology advances that have changed industry, Moody and Morley are able to supply simple guidelines for future growth and detail their keen vision of future systems, leaders, and workers. They isolate the three bad business habits at the root of manufacturing problems today -- shortsightedness, restrictive structures, and unbalanced improvement fads -- show how to break them, and supply four infallible predictors of the types of breakthrough technologies that will come to dominate the world of the future. In that world, customers and suppliers are linked by real-time, online systems; business is driven by customer-designed, point-of-consumption replication of product; and a wide gap grows between "The Island of Excellence" organization of the future -- with its holistic approach, including two-year apprenticeships, uniforms, and morning exercises -- and "The Others," the non-elite, sweatshop-like, breakeven companies of the past. The book is eloquent, original, and essential reading for managers in every area of business and industry.

"Powered by Honda" tells the story of what Honda does, and illustrates the BP process with stories, charts, photos, and other powerful methods that guarantee success. From the people on the floor who build the cars, to the suppliers who keep Honda lines running non-stop, and the managers who run the supply chains, you'll feel the Racing Spirit that powers the machine. Honda's global leadership position in profits, growth, and innovation was built on the principles in this book.

"The authors of the widely acclaimed "The Purchasing Machine" deliver an eye-opening look at the power of supply management with " The Incredible Payback."

This timely book presents amazing success stories from best-of-the-best procurement organizations like Honda, Delphi, John Deere, and others.

Using the same cost-management strategies implemented at these leading organizations, "The Incredible Payback"shows how any company can reap benefits including:

* saving up to 30 percent on material and service expenses

* leveraging technology to accelerate savings

* high-yield supplier development programs

* extension of financial opportunities throughout the highest levels of the enterprise, exponentially increasing savings potential

Great companies save money every day. Now every organization can realize " The Incredible Payback""