Despite ongoing economic and business environment challenges, world-class procurement organizations continue to outperform the peer group by a wide margin, up to $6m in cost savings for the typical large company. They deliver services at 19 percent lower cost with greater effectiveness and require 27 percent fewer full-time-equivalents (FTEs) per $1bn in spend. For many, efficiency gains have reached their practical limits. What's next?
Despite concerns about rising costs and a lack of qualified workers, purchasing and manufacturing executives at mid-sized U.S. industrial manufacturing companies remain optimistic about revenues and employment for the balance of 2014 and going forward.
If there's one story that's been beaten to death by the media in search of feel-good news from what’s been a pretty tepid economic recovery, it's that of the supposed manufacturing renaissance in the U.S.
The need to attract and retain the best possible supply-chain talent is more important than ever before. So why doesn't executive awareness of the problem lead to substantive action and investment? Ken Chadwick, principal research analyst with Gartner, explains.
