This requires a timing mindset change, given that most issues with domestic suppliers can be resolved right away (or at least within a week, in the worst case scenario). Internationally, though, even for bordering countries, it might take a more particular purchase order even several weeks to be confirmed, let alone processed and delivered over oceans and through customs and duties. With global sourcing, the challenge has become how to communicate from a swanky domestic office in a Group of Eight (G8) country with a factory as far away as Africa or the Far East. The challenge is also how to assimilate and communicate multiple data points effectively into a unified operation on a single screen. After all, in the manufacturing process, communication necessarily takes place among retailers, manufacturers, brand managers, contractors, agents, brokers, and logistics providers. Many still share product information over the phone, or via email and faxes, or through physical communication, and the difficulty is thus to consolidate all these diverse data points.
In a more sophisticated scenario, though, all the members of the supply chain communicate through a Web-based system, which means that when a vendor makes a change in the status of a product, for example, everyone in the supply chain will see the change too. The key in global sourcing today is to minimize the overall cycle and disruptions, and the most important way to do that is to have live, accurate, immediate information. New Internet-native sourcing software applications should give users visibility throughout the world of current product or order status at any point in time, and eliminate almost all duplication of information, thereby allowing all trading parties to collaborate on more rewarding issues, rather than constantly fighting fires.
For instance, prior to implementing a contemporary Web-based automated solution, contacting multiple vendors at once for pricing would be a tedious and pedestrian manual process for the sourcing group. On the other hand, by using a Web-enabled infrastructure, user enterprises should be able to better integrate globally with their supply base, and broaden the scope of vendors they can locate. Such technology has lately streamlined the ability of many retail firms to get estimated pricing from several vendors simultaneously. Also, when the design team comes up with a new fashion concept and wants to get a sample of that concept, such a system allows the information that they have designed to flow into the sourcing organization, which then allows the sourcing team to start getting estimated costs, as well as time-and-action (meaning normalized or synchronized calendars within the entire production cycle) information. Then the team can better determine where it wants to place the production, depending on volume—possibly also integrating with the merchant organization to give them a feel for how much product the firm will be sourcing of a given style, so that they can look at capacity constraints. The next step could be to use the software tools to break style data down by more variables, in preparation for placing the purchase or production order. For instance, this might provide suppliers with answers to several questions: How much does the retailer want to order by color and by size? What is the final pricing? What is the final time-and-action calendar?
Increasingly, the standard order confirmation and customary advance ship notice (ASN) procurement practices cannot provide sufficient guarantee that everything is going smoothly with any placed order. This is particularly the case for the internationally sourced, custom-made purchases that are common in the consumer goods manufacturing and distribution industries. Here, the difficulty of communicating across time zones, along with long lead times, make for lengthy recuperation periods (if it is even possible to recover) when problems occur. That is why buyers should benefit from visibility and event management systems that would inform (or alert) them that, say, their orders were (not) started on time, or were (not) placed on the boat on schedule; or whether the design team has meanwhile (yet again) changed specs on color or fabric for a paarticular planned merchandise; or that the order was (not) properly documented to clear customs without a glitch.
In a more sophisticated scenario, though, all the members of the supply chain communicate through a Web-based system, which means that when a vendor makes a change in the status of a product, for example, everyone in the supply chain will see the change too. The key in global sourcing today is to minimize the overall cycle and disruptions, and the most important way to do that is to have live, accurate, immediate information. New Internet-native sourcing software applications should give users visibility throughout the world of current product or order status at any point in time, and eliminate almost all duplication of information, thereby allowing all trading parties to collaborate on more rewarding issues, rather than constantly fighting fires.
For instance, prior to implementing a contemporary Web-based automated solution, contacting multiple vendors at once for pricing would be a tedious and pedestrian manual process for the sourcing group. On the other hand, by using a Web-enabled infrastructure, user enterprises should be able to better integrate globally with their supply base, and broaden the scope of vendors they can locate. Such technology has lately streamlined the ability of many retail firms to get estimated pricing from several vendors simultaneously. Also, when the design team comes up with a new fashion concept and wants to get a sample of that concept, such a system allows the information that they have designed to flow into the sourcing organization, which then allows the sourcing team to start getting estimated costs, as well as time-and-action (meaning normalized or synchronized calendars within the entire production cycle) information. Then the team can better determine where it wants to place the production, depending on volume—possibly also integrating with the merchant organization to give them a feel for how much product the firm will be sourcing of a given style, so that they can look at capacity constraints. The next step could be to use the software tools to break style data down by more variables, in preparation for placing the purchase or production order. For instance, this might provide suppliers with answers to several questions: How much does the retailer want to order by color and by size? What is the final pricing? What is the final time-and-action calendar?
Increasingly, the standard order confirmation and customary advance ship notice (ASN) procurement practices cannot provide sufficient guarantee that everything is going smoothly with any placed order. This is particularly the case for the internationally sourced, custom-made purchases that are common in the consumer goods manufacturing and distribution industries. Here, the difficulty of communicating across time zones, along with long lead times, make for lengthy recuperation periods (if it is even possible to recover) when problems occur. That is why buyers should benefit from visibility and event management systems that would inform (or alert) them that, say, their orders were (not) started on time, or were (not) placed on the boat on schedule; or whether the design team has meanwhile (yet again) changed specs on color or fabric for a paarticular planned merchandise; or that the order was (not) properly documented to clear customs without a glitch.
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