by Mary Ruth Williamson, CEO | Jul 3, 2026 | RFQ/E-Sourcing
As manufacturing organizations grow across multiple facilities, the same pattern shows up almost every time. Plant A is buying fasteners from one supplier. Plant B is buying the same fasteners from a different supplier, at a different price, on different terms. Nobody...
by Mary Ruth Williamson, CEO | Jun 30, 2026 | Featured, News
The Strait of Hormuz is reopening. Procurement teams should be relieved! They should also be careful. After nearly four months of disruption, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding. Commercial vessels are moving again. More than twenty ships...
by Mary Ruth Williamson, CEO | Jun 23, 2026 | Direct Materials Sourcing
Most manufacturing procurement teams are sourcing reactively without realizing it. A supplier sends a price increase letter and procurement responds. A plant requests a new supplier and procurement evaluates one option. A shortage forces an emergency qualification and...
by Mary Ruth Williamson, CEO | Jun 19, 2026 | Featured, News
For the past several months, procurement teams have been fixated on a single question: What happens next in the Strait of Hormuz? It’s a fair question. The conflict has disrupted energy markets, freight routes, commodity pricing, and supplier planning across...
by Mary Ruth Williamson, CEO | Jun 17, 2026 | Capability Building
Most procurement organizations don’t reach their current state by design. They get there through accumulation: buyers added as plants grew, processes that emerged in response to specific problems, supplier relationships that developed independently across...
