2-6.4 Purchase/SCM Team Project-Level Expertise

Once capable suppliers are chosen to participate in planning activities, the goal is for them to validate the feasibility of the purchase and to generate quality, cost, and cycle time improvements. To achieve success, the purchase/SCM team must:

The purchase/SCM team’s knowledge of the requirement drives supplier influence. It is crucial to understand the implications of supplier feedback, and the purchase/SCM team must develop an adequate level of expertise to enable an effective working relationship with suppliers and internal cross-functional team members. Members must have enough expertise to ensure that suppliers’ proprietary solutions do not become central to the success of the purchase if doing so will harm the Postal Service’s business and competitive interests.

As a result of involving suppliers in planning, a supplier‘s ideas may be incorporated into the designing, testing, engineering, manufacturing, and implementation of the purchase, and may result in inviting suppliers’ engineers into the Postal Service’s own engineering departments. Successful supplier involvement may lead to: