A major aspect of Japan's international economic success has been its industrial firms' ability to develop a system of subcontracting with suppliers. Through an exploration of the evolution of subcontracting in Japan as well as an analysis of its current practice in advanced economies,Nishiguchi reveals what he believes to be the shortcomings of existing theories of contractual relations. He shows that subcontracting can be described as the evolutionary product of complex historical interaction among social, political, technological, and company-level strategic plans--but not oneconstrained by culture. This makes it possible for other countries to use models similar to those employed in Japan, encouraging continuous improvement in product quality and cost reduction.

The latest best practice guidance on all aspects of global strategic sourcing-including environmental and international issues Strategic Global Sourcing Best Practices covers the latest trends and leading edge processes in global strategic sourcing, including supply management, t, sustainability, financial decisions, risk management, and international strategies. Offers the latest trends and guidance for sourcing and supply managers Features coverage of understanding sourcing, procurement and supply management, procurement and best business practices, best practices in sourcing management and global sourcing management, financial strategies for sourcing, responsible procurement,diversity procurement, managing risk, supplier selection, project management for procurement and supply managers, managing supplier relationships, international sourcing, managing supplier relationships supply management operations, With the rise of global supply chains, environmental/sustainability concerns, and constantly evolving technology, the time is right for understanding Strategic Global Sourcing Best Practices.

Strategic Sourcing Management examines procurement and supply management in detail, covering the three dimensions of competitiveness, effectiveness and efficiency. Written by Olivier Bruel, Professor Emeritus HEC Paris, and a team of contributing experts from academia, consulting and industry, the book is organised into four parts: strategic decisions; operational management of procurement and related supply chain; management of human resources and dedicated information systems; management of performance and change. This book has been written with a comprehensive global and coherent approach but the chapters are self-standing, enabling the reader to dip into different sections according to need. Strategic Sourcing Management considers both tactical and strategic perspectives that link with a corporate strategy and it includes dedicated chapters on how to set up a Strategic Sourcing function. The text is enriched with clear graphics and solid examples of best practice. Strategic Sourcing Management is a robust text based on both research and experience, so an essential reference for practitioners and academics working in or studying procurement and supply management. It is suitable for anyone involved in procurement and supply management at a senior level but also for general management enabling them to understand the mechanisms of value creation through Strategic Sourcing.

This selection discusses global sourcing and explores strategies for locating, qualifying, and employing suppliers that add maximum value to your business. Discover profit-boosting opportunities specific to your market environment by following Sollish's clear steps for analyzing and implementing a strategic sourcing plan. Other topics covered include investigating sourcing opportunities, co-sourcing and strategic alliances, and reducing supply risk.

Sourcing Strategy is about sourcing as a long term strategic activity. Myopic purchasing management stops short with describing functional procedures and procedural innovations such as online order processing. The goal of this book is not merely to document sourcing strategy, but to provide the tools to determine it. Therefore, rather than merely describe common sourcing processes, the book takes a normative approach to sourcing strategy. It argues for a rational, complete and integrated process view. It supports its recommendations with logical arguments from an interdisciplinary and analytical approach grounded in microeconomics, law and business strategy. Part 1 of the book explains the economic and business principles that underlie sourcing strategies. It derives policies that guide viable strategies to meet sourcing goals. Part 2 applies these to creative designs for standard sourcing scenarios.

This book takes a process approach of identifying, evaluating, selecting, managing and developing suppliers to create more value for customers. It begins by outlining the mental shift necessary to build robust relationships with suppliers. Next, the book details strategic sourcing methodology: a step-by-step approach for creating productive relationships with key suppliers, providing illustrations and examples from the author’s experience throughout. The third and final part of the book provides details of a comprehensive process developed to arm the negotiation team with all facts necessary to reach desired outcomes. This detailed step-by-step process consists of negotiation strategy and case building, supplier response and positioning, negotiation planning, discussions, and resolution, and supplier evaluation. In addition, the book highlights best practices in strategic sourcing representing tactics for buyers to leverage their buying power to ensure they attain full value. These best practices are drawn from several strategic sourcing projects carried out for leading companies in the USA over several years.

This book is an outline for identifying potential vendors, conducting negotiations and engaging purchasing agreements to provide goods and/or services that meet procurement needs. In the course of time the role and character of purchasing has been changing constantly. Traditionally, purchasing was seen as merely a supportive and supplementary operational activity with little significance on a firm’s performance. This approach however conveys a rather reactive strategy of purchasing where the focus is on transactions rather than on relations and also more on an operational or tactical level rather than on a strategic one. Market trends with respect to price and quality as well as global and local trends are emphasized in this book which gives more sense in the sourcing and procurement activities. This book also explains about listing down the category to analyse the money spend on manufacturing activities.

"Companies of all sizes are seeking to transform their procurement and supplier relationship management processes: activities that have a tremendous upside potential for improved supply chain effectiveness and efficiency. Now, two leading consultants and researchers offer a comprehensive approach to creating customer value through strategic sourcing and procurement. Unlike texts focused primarily on day-to-day operations and tactics, Delivering Customer Value through Procurement and Strategic Sourcing focuses on helping senior executives and managers gain sustainable competitive advantage from their supply chains."--Publisher's website.

Supply Chain Strategies demonstrates how organizations must take strategic decisions in order to manage their supply chains to sustain competitiveness in the global economy. Whereas many textbooks on supply chain management focus on purchasing and operations, this new edition of Tony Hines’ text focuses upon the direction-setting and efficient resource-allocation that organizations need to provide in order to satisfy their customers. Overcoming tensions between political, economic, technological, ethical and environmental considerations is shown to be vital to develop effective strategies for managing the supply chain. The third edition of Tony Hines’ successful textbook integrates thoroughly updated international cases to demonstrate how strategic thinking and SCM play out in the real world, and contains a host of useful pedagogy to reinforce learning, including learning outcomes for each chapter, discussion questions and a handy glossary. New to this edition are chapters discussing supply chain risk, procurement strategies and supply chain futures. This book is ideal for courses on supply chain management – especially those that require a strategic element.

There are three stages to outsourcing: The first occurred at the dawn of industrial era in the 19th century, where mass production for consumption by many, became the norm and simple domestic means could not meet such demands. With the cost of labor soaring in developed countries, manufacturing of products started moving to countries like China to take advantage of labor arbitrage in the 1900s. This is the second stage of outsourcing. This book addresses issues and challenges in the third stage of outsourcing whose focus is on movement of services at electronic speed, utilizing the Internet platform.The book includes short essay questions, multiple choice questions, mini-cases at the end of most chapters and glossary of terms. It can also serve as a good reference book for practitioners.