 The Use of Procurement and Supply Management Tools and TechniquesAndrew Cox, Chris Lonsdale, Joe Sanderson and Glyn Watson Chapter 9 in The Right Tools for the Job, 2005, pp 251-281 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract In recent years there has been a marked increase in the attention given to the issue of operational efficiency. All of these tools seek to obtain more from a firm’s inputs by driving down its cost base and, consequently, achieving higher levels of profitability. This growing preoccupation with operational efficiency can be dated to the competitive challenge mounted by Japanese companies in the 1970s and 1980s. For a while Japanese firms in some industrial sectors were so far ahead of their Anglo-Saxon and Continental European counterparts that they were able to simultaneously offer customers lower prices and superior products. The source of Japanese competitiveness in this period cannot be traced to a single source. However, one feature of Japanese management practice that does stand out then, and now, is the emphasis that it has traditionally placed on external resource management. The Japanese appear, when compared with other cultures, to have placed procurement and supply management issues at the core of their business model. Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Service Level Agreement; Industry Sector; Supply Function; Transport Equipment (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-50920-7_9 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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