Title

Supply Chain Relationships, Governance, and Compliance: Making Them Work for You

Speakers

Marie Mensah, CEO and Founder, Mensah Consulting
Jennifer Sieber, Senior Manager of Global Procurement, Abbott Laboratories

Moderator

Mary Murphy, Co-founder and Partner, Denairus LLC

Takeaways

• Supplier performance management should be a 2-way street to optimize results (customer provides feedback to supplier on their performance and vice-versa
• Governance is all about structure and people: Topics affect everyone no matter what department you are in.
• When a process must be adjusted for compliance reasons: Take a broad look to determine other moves that can be made to make it a win. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. 
• When capital projects are needed to get in compliance - Is there a synergy opportunity to include other projects that wouldn’t get done on their own?

Output from table discussions on better practices

Supplier Relationship Management

1. Proper supplier segmentation is the key to being able to manage this. Focus resources on the suppliers who have the greatest impact on your success.
2. Making yourself easy to do business with – example: take actions to be the “shipper of choice”
3. Ensure suppliers have appropriate access to your facility
4. Periodic business reviews, Scorecards
1. Innovation should be included on the scorecard and built into contracts (rewards for excellence)
2. Supplier awards – recognize top performance
3. Standardize metrics across categories / business units to the extent possible.
4. Do a better job of getting their feedback for what you can do better
5. Speak with one voice: make sure messaging to suppliers is consistent wherever it comes from in your organization
6. Learn from others in industry: benchmarking

 Governance and Compliance

• Training / Communication
• Use compliance as a “selling point” to customers
• Accountability: be clear who owns it
• Document data requirements
• From customers
• From regulatory agencies
• Compliance should be embedded in operating software vs having separate tools.
• Compliance should be part of an organization’s vision and mission
• Having better quality data because external parties are requiring it is a win
• Utilize 3^rd party services for data reporting
• Utilize 3^rd party subject matter experts
• Ensure compliance requirements are known / incorporated across functions up front.