Cambridge Solutions Inc

Bullwhip effect This is why you can't get your planning to work out.

You may never get the change. If you did get a chance to set up a new factory then this document from Brace Associates is a great place to start. When I used to do a lot of teaching at Conestoga College I had one "game" that I like to have my students try and figure out. Their challenge was a bit simpler. They had to create a new department and they were given all of the steps and just had to put them in order. They were first instructed to tackle the problem by themselves. They were then assigned to be on a team and they had to come up with their team answer. What were the general results? Teams did better than individuals when it came to picking the right sequence and they won by a healthy margin. 90% better or more. Those that did worse had an "expert" in the group who would not listen to a difference of opinion. Which leads me to the next question? How many are going to read the handout and disagree with certain steps? My guess is not a lot and I am sure that those that don't read the document are for sure going to do poorly.

Dirty Dozen For those of you that are older, you will remember the movie. If you are too young then Google the title and you will learn why I used this phrase to start this post. I wanted to give recognition to those who have inspired me with their content. Where they are located in the image is just a coincidence. Top row (left to right) Gary Mander, Sime Curkovic, Efrata Denny, Dr. Mario Büsch, Gerald (Jerry) Ford, Larry Berglund Nishant R Bottom Row James Meads Tom Mills, Rachelle Hare Michele Romano Marcia D Williams Saheena Ansari - The Procurementholic If you were paying attention then you might have counted 13 names versus 12. This is called a baker's dozen where you get one more that adds to the value of what you are getting. I had to include myself as I do tend to get inspired and I am always searching for what is different and interesting. Next month I will post another list of who you should be following.

Jill of all trades Have you noticed that there are a number of jobs that are hard to fill? If you are in construction then you know that skilled employees are hard to find. Don't believe me then read the attached document. There is a huge demand for people and the supply portion of the equation needs to increase. The concept of Jill of all Trades is an excellent starting point. There are also other examples of what can be done but I will focus on one person and how she is making a difference. Chantalle Hepburn's primary job is that she is the Business Development Manager for Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance. She is also the founding member of the Women in Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) Society. The other group that she helps with is the National Women In Roofing. Both groups offer support, training and networking opportunities. What is QCsolver Inc. doing to help? If you need to be registered in our system and you are a small supplier, then we will waive our administration fee. We also waive our fee for indigenous and not-for-profit organizations. Just our way of also trying to make a positive difference.

Jill of all trades Have you noticed that there are a number of jobs that are hard to fill? If you are in construction then you know that skilled employees are hard to find. Don't believe me then read the attached document. There is a huge demand for people and the supply portion of the equation needs to increase. The concept of Jill of all Trades is an excellent starting point. There are also other examples of what can be done but I will focus on one person and how she is making a difference. Chantalle Hepburn's primary job is that she is the Business Development Manager for Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance. She is also the founding member of the Women in Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) Society. The other group that she helps with is the National Women In Roofing. Both groups offer support, training and networking opportunities. What is QCsolver Inc. doing to help? If you need to be registered in our system and you are a small supplier, then we will waive our administration fee. We also waive our fee for indigenous and not-for-profit organizations. Just our way of also trying to make a positive difference.

Bus factor This is a concept that I use a lot. What would happen if? Sketchplanations created this visual and I thought I would put a few things in perspective. QCsolver Inc. has experienced some dramatic growth in 2024. We have added a lot more customers and hired key contributors. As you read this, I am away on vacation and trying to make sure that I don't have to work. I am confident that Rachel Ford has everything under control. She does what I hate doing and she is good at it. In order to stay organized we have Victoria Woudsma who also backs up Rachel if she is also away or too busy. Victoria is the individual who helps our clients and works with their suppliers to get them fully updated in our supplier management portal. Todd Phillips is our lead developer and we also have Kiana Safavi Baygi as his backup. The last member of our team that I will mention is Diksha Kumawat who is our latest addition to the team and we are greatly leveraging her Power BI and analytical skills. Rachel also happens to be Diksha's backup. So as you can see we have done our best to cross-train everyone so we are not worried about someone being "hit by a bus". We can just concentrate on running the business.

What aspect of purchasing do I enjoy the most? For me, I do enjoy facilities purchasing. There is something about the nature of the job. Always new challenges. Never enough money. Things wearing out. Suppliers come and go and some stay too long. Yasar Mushtaq put together this document that I am sure you will enjoy reading. Looking for your next challenge, then I would highly recommend joining an organization that has multiple locations across the country. You will be busy and find the job to be very rewarding. By the way, QCsolver Inc. has always focused on facilities and it is great that Kinetic GPO has several contracts that facility purchasers can quickly use while remaining trade agreement compliant.

Procurement Maturity Matrix: a roadmap to excellence Everyone needs a road map so that they can determine where they are and where they are going. Let's not call it a vision statement which are mostly words of what you want to be versus an action plan. Also, don't call it a strategic plan as often they are way too generic for my liking. What I prefer are roadmaps. You determine where you are, what will it take to get to the next level and how are you going to accomplish what you have set out to do. strategic sourcing sphere created this document which outlines what you might want to do. You also might want to connect with Simon Brown who has developed a similar tool to help you assess your own personal roadmap. Happy trails!

Intro to Lean Six Sigma I am sorry that I don't know who created this document or I would have given them credit. What I enjoyed the most about this particular handout was the amount of useful information visually explained. Enjoy!

Importance of feedback in procurement I can attribute a lot of my own personal success to the fact that I get a lot of feedback. Some of it I don't want to hear especially when I am wrong. Now I know that feedback for improvement is the most important gift anyone can give you. Here is a gift that I would like to share from the Procurement League.