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CONSULTING & COACHING

Consulting

Purchasing is essential to a company’s competitiveness. The market expectation for higher quality, quicker time-to-market, more integrated functionalities, and lower costs has required higher supplier capability and earlier involvement, which can cause difficulties. That’s where we step in.

Developing customized purchasing strategies and translating them into actionable guidelines and procedures, we advise manufacturing companies of all sizes and industries on their supply chain management solutions. Contact us to see how we can help.

Coaching & Training Programs

Along with our consulting services, we also have training and coaching programs that develop purchasing professionals and teach them to take a strategic approach that aligns with high level corporate goals. It also equips them with the necessary skills to make sure that processes are established to have suppliers properly managed and risks under control.

Formulating Purchasing Strategy Aligning with Business

When talking about strategy, do you think it is merely beautiful PPTs which are used to present to senior management, and that it doesn’t relate anything to your daily work? Or it is just a way of indicating cost reduction? Either way, on the surface level purchasing strategy can seem like a fruitless task.

We used to think that way, but now we know that strategy is necessary for a successful supply chain. To learn more about the benefits of purchasing strategy, come to join our Strategy Workshop. In this workshop we will show you how to develop a purchasing strategy which aligns with business goals and sets up your company’s supply chain going into the future. 

Key Topics:

  • What is Purchasing Strategy
  • Why Do We Need Purchasing Strategy
  • Corporate Mission and Business Goals
  • Category Four Quadrants and Management Strategy
  • Supplier Relationship Model and its Management Strategy
  • Managing Supply Risk
  • Effective Cost Management
  • Case Studies
  • Action Plan

Purchasing Processes

This workshop gives you an all-rounded knowledge about all the purchasing related processes, introducing the concept of upstream processes playing an important role in purchasing management. We also look at the overall goal of processes and the roles and responsibilities at all levels of purchasing.

Key Topics:

  • Importance of Purchasing
  • Purchasing Goal, Roles and Responsibilities
  • Strategic Purchasing Planning Process
  • Requirement Analysis
  • Market Research
  • Supplier Qualification
  • Contract Management
  • Risk Management 
  • Order Management Process
  • New Product Introduction Process
  • Technical Purchasing (RFX)
  • Supplier Management and Development Process
  • Supplier Quality
  • Strategic Cost Management Procs

Purchasing Negotiation

Though the cost of the product has largely been defined in the product development stage, negotiation is still an important way of achieving cost reduction.

Unlike business negotiation, the effective purchasing negotiation mainly uses case studies to demonstrate preparation, skills, tactics and styles. You will learn how negotiation is applied to achieve favorable outcomes in different scenarios. 

Throughout the workshop, we help purchasing professionals gain a negotiation mindset, combining the right preparation model with a systematic approach. 

Key Topics:

  • Mini Negotiation Case Studies
  • Negotiation Process
  • Negotiation Preparation (LIM, BATANA)
  • Negotiation Tactics and Styles (ZOOPA, Interest & Position)
  • Case Studies

Cost Management

Are you tired of endless cost reduction meetings? Do you feel stressed about squeezing a tiny profit from suppliers?  Are you confident that the price you are buying with is fair or even competitive? Is the lowest price always the best choice? Do you know that a higher buying price lead to more benefit for your company? How much do you know about TCO? The cost management workshop will help you answer all these questions.

Starting off, we evaluate cost reduction from a business perspective, then you will learn how to do effective cost management using theories of cost. We will discuss various ways of cost reduction based on different categories, understand TCO and the practical use of it, and learn how to build should-cost model for processing materials. After this course, you will become more confident and capable in cost management.

Key Topics:

  • Cost Principle
  • Cost Analysis Framework
  • Cost Planning and Management
  • Price vs Cost
  • Cost Reduction Techniques
  • TCO Model 
  • Case Studies 

Conducted Examples of Purchasing Training and Coaching Programs:

  • Hang Seng University of Hong Kong Keynote Speaker – Building a Winning Supply Chain
  • Sourcing Strategy Development Seminar for the member companies of Guangdong PSA, Shanghai SCOM
  • Effective Supplier Management System Seminar (Ref: S.F. Express)
  • Purchasing to Non-Purchasing Manager Seminar (Ref: Maquet, Moen)
  • Purchasing Process Training & Workshops (Ref: Philips Singapore/Shenzhen, Schneider, Konecranes, Shennan Circuits, Mindray) 
  • Purchasing Negotiation Workshop (Philip HK, Maquet) 
  • e-Tendering Management Training (Shanghai Purchasing Association SCOM)

Examples of Consulting Projects

  • Designed and conducted a two-year coaching program for a multinational medical equipment company. The program’s objective was to help the client’s China IPO team (International Purchasing Office) succeed in locating and developing the China supply base for global operations in terms of strategic direction and people skills.
  • Successfully conducted a cost reduction project for a global fortune 500 company in the crane and elevator industry. We evaluated their cost level compared with other market offers, used should-cost analysis, recommended cost management model by category, and provided proposals for cost reduction ideas. Within two months’ time, 300 components in 15 different categories were reviewed and a 20-30% cost reduction was realized.  
  • Complete revamping of a large state-owned enterprise’s purchasing department. The deliverables of the projects are: re-organization, team’s roles and responsibilities, purchasing and sourcing core processes, and management strategy for category, supplier, cost and risk.