The Sourcing Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program [Hardcover]

Larry Paquette (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 2003

Straight information and practical steps for better purchasing and procurement. The purchasing function is in the middle of unprecedented change. The transformation is being driven by globalization in consumer and supplier markets, as well as by rapid technological advances that facilitate procurement on any scale. The Sourcing Solution offers a clear overview of the new tools of sourcing success, including e-commerce and Internet strategies, supply-chain management technology, inventory auction sites, strategic sourcing initiatives, offshore and international sourcing, and much more. Author Larry Paquette brings his considerable experience to this engaging and accessible guide, designed to give readers practical ideas for use in their own organizations and throughout their careers. The Sourcing Solution is a timely resource for professionals at all levels, including:

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

"The purchasing function is in the middle of unprecedented change. The transformation is being driven by globalization in consumer and supplier markets, as well as by rapid technological advances that facilitate procurement on any scale.

The Sourcing Solution offers a clear overview of the new tools of sourcing success, including e-commerce and Internet strategies, supply-chain management technology, inventory auction sites, strategic sourcing initiatives, offshore and international sourcing, and much more. Author Larry Paquette brings his considerable experience to this engaging and accessible guide, designed to give readers practical ideas for use in their own organizations and throughout their careers.

The Sourcing Solution is a timely resource for professionals at all levels, including:

* Newly promoted buyers who will use it as a basic introduction to purchasing, filled with great ideas for how to do the job better

* Managers whose growth and new responsibilities require understanding of broader issues

* Executives who need to identify shortfalls in current sourcing initiatives, set new procurement goals, and develop strategies and metrics for ensuring success"

"Lean manufacturing is the single most effective way to increase sales, cut costs, improve margins, and secure the future of a business. The problem is that the principles and philosophies of lean manufacturing are geared strictly to mass production operations--and can be ineffective, even detrimental, for smaller job shops and make-to-order businesses.

Now, Speed to Market delivers a proven approach for smaller suppliers who want to successfully cut their lead time and trigger profitable growth. Completely updated and expanded, the book explains how to:

* Apply the principles of pull, flow, and the elimination of waste to every area of the company, at every stage from ""quotes to cash""

* Implement a continuous improvement process--while sidestepping the typical implementation pitfalls

* Ease scheduling problems

* Improve performance and profitability using the book's practical concepts, process analysis tools, and perspective-enhancing techniques--and much more."

About the Author

Larry Paquette (Fresno, CA) has been a purchasing professional for more than 30 years, with experience at Caterpillar, Silicon Graphics, Beckman Instruments, and others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (December 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814471919
• ISBN-13: 978-0814471913
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Guidepost for Success, April 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sourcing Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program (Hardcover)

In an age of micro business specialization, The Sourcing Solution provides a refreshingly broad approach to sourcing in the global economy. Where most business books on the shelf today delve deeply into a specific topic or bore the reader to tears with exploring the remotest corners of a topic, this book provides a road map to overall sourcing success.

As Paquette points out, this book provides an overview approach to sourcing, and lists and briefly covers the steps required to improve the probability of attaining success. For the new buyer, this is a checklist of learning and experience required. For the manager of a company looking to install a sourcing process, The Sourcing Solution identifies areas to be concerned with. As the reader goes through the text, they are free to create a sylibus of topics they feel they need to explore further.

This book is not intended to be the "Be all, final sourcing reference" when it comes to sourcing. Instead, it is a well written guide to sourcing of the future. I found it to be an entertaining read that presents the material in an informative, yet interesting manner.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for general managers, not for professional purchasers, April 10, 2004

By 

Holger Schiele "holgerschiele" (Düsseldorf) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sourcing Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program (Hardcover)

As a procurement consultant I can agree on most issues Paquette raises in his book. Despite valuable details and a good overview, however, I would not recommend this book for professional purchasers, even though this is the target group Paquette addresses.

Why? The book is a little bit superficial in nature, just scraping issues without providing you with the tools you need to actually solve problems. As an example, Paquette talks about a Japanese technique called SMED. In the single page dedicated to the issue, you do not really learn what it is. The only advantage of being mentioned is that you may feel inspired to find out if it fits your company and how to implement it. Paquette includes some literature links, unfortunately without regularely quoting them in the text. So you have to start an own research or ask someone to do so for you.

This leads me to my final conclusion: In my opinion, professional purchasers may find the book too little revealing. Still, it is a good book, however for a different audience: The typical reader would be the head of a commercial department, who has also taken over the responsability for a purchasing sub-department and needs to have some introductory insights to understand the state and the potential for his purchasing unit.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, March 9, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sourcing Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program (Hardcover)

Purchasing is a critically important business function, although it lacks the glamour and excitement of, say, finance or sales. In the past, purchasing employees have often been little more than glorified clerks mired in price comparisons. Sometimes, their responsibilities included accompanying vendors to ballgames and such, activities that helped keep the purchasing pro's mind off the fact that not many CEOs seemed to come up through the purchasing department. That may already be changing. Indeed, purchasing is now a career hot spot. Several trends - such as corporate demands for cost cutting and outsourcing, new electronic markets and auctions, globalization of customers and vendors, sharper supply-chain logistics technology, and the movement to create partnerships with suppliers - make purchasing substantially more important than ever before. Author Larry Paquette offers a short, lucid, quite readable summary of the essentials of purchasing in that light. We find it an excellent, comprehensive and useful overview of sourcing.