It’s no secret that “going green” is a hot topic among consumers and organizations alike. Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in where the products they purchase come from and how those products impact the environment. This can be seen in the rising popularity of Sourcemap.org, an open-…

APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking research has some interesting information on organizations with category management programs in procurement. For instance, did you know that at the median level, these organizations process nearly 100 percent more purchase orders per full-time equivalent employee…

Last week Marisa Brown and I hosted a Webinar on the newest supply chain management content in the Knowledge Base. If you want to find out what’s new and what we have planned for the rest of the year, watch the video of the Webinar or take a look at the slides. The slides include links to the new…

APQC is studying enterprise risk management (you can check out our newest report on this topic), and so is our member IBM. Now we want to know how organizations align operations and finance to monitor, mitigate, and monetize risk. We invite you to participate in IBM’s global survey on…

I've almost finished reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. I'm sure many of you have already read it since it came out last year and was #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List. But this was my first time through it. Fascinating book! I highly recommend it. The book got me…

What practice in procurement is associated with shorter supplier lead times and faster PO processing? Category Management. By clustering suppliers into categories, you can leverage similar market intelligence, sourcing strategies, and supplier relationship management programs. Here's an…

It might seem harsh to talk about killing potential new products before they launch. Killing them before they go to market means they never get a chance to be the next "big thing." But the reality is that organizations with the ability to make those tough decisions tend to have greater success…

Want to know how leading organizations keep their innovation processes rigorous yet flexible? APQC gathered data from 250+ organizations and created two reports: the first is more qualitative and focuses on the best practices. The second is quantitative and highlights the metrics and…

How does logistics impact the entire organization? Want to learn how to know if your organization is performing well? APQC has released a second edition of our popular Blueprint for Success: Logistics. It includes key measures, selected metrics, best practices, and case examples from…

Green Supply Chains Are Good for Business was Blue Coat Systems key takeaway when it revamped its entire supply chain. It revisited product design, logistics, and energy consumption. And found that going green helped save money.