The Procurement and Supply umbrella extends throughout all phases of the product creation process. Its efforts have contributed to reducing the product creation cycle to twenty-three months. Steve discussed future opportunities for the extended enterprise. Supply-chains are very complex and no one knows them entirely. One of the crossings was to inspect a product.
Some products share the same supply-chain.
Procurement and Supply plans to do similar mappings for all of its components. Total Cost of Ownership is another recent initiative. Suppliers are assessed on cost drivers for materials, overhead, warranty, and assembly for savings opportunities. Future sourcing decisions are based on supplier measurables such as cost, quality, delivery, and technology. Suppliers that are high on all criteria are rewarded.