Meeting/Event Information

*This event will include dinner

Tentative schedule:

Strategic Sourcing for Successful Supplier Relationships

Strategic sourcing seeks to embrace suppliers as partners, as though they are upstream work centers within our company. The goal is long-term relationships founded on mutual compatibility of interests, competencies and trust. Traditional habits of beating up vendors on price and dictating terms are replaced with win-win negotiations that serve to strengthen the supply chain. This view recognizes that supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link, and it is in all parties’ best interest to strengthen each link. Attendees will perform hands-on exercises to learn:

• The purchasing continuum from tactical order placing to strategic sourcing
• Four major types of purchases and how they relate to the continuum
• A supplier evaluation tool known as Weighted Factor Analysis
• The importance of identifying core competencies in the supply chain
• The contrast between vertical and horizontal integration

Meet the presenter: Michael D. Ford, CFPIM, CSCP, CLTD, CQA, CRE, CQE, ACPF, CPSM, CSSGB

Principal of TQM Works Consulting, for which he is widely recognized as a premier provider of corporate training across a wide array of subjects. He provides innovative solutions based on 30 years of experience in retail, distribution, manufacturing, and consulting. His work history includes software implementation, business planning, inventory management, distribution planning and education. This includes a broad range of experience from ETO to MTS, as well as non-profits, service, and Department of Defense.

He has presented at over 330 industry events throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Nigeria, S. Africa and Australia, and has provided over 5,000 hours of classroom training. He specializes in delivering training that is “edu-taining” and as a result averages 4.7/5.0 on evaluations.

Ford is a 2016 graduate of Binghamton University, earning a M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering. He continues to pursue “lifelong learning for lifetime success” and has participated in over 160 professional development activities beyond his formal education, and has additionally acquired 9 internationally recognized professional certifications.