Strategic Sourcing

Creating Value-Added Supplier Partnerships

In order to help its clients successfully implement their top-level strategies through more effective sourcing initiatives, GMT is proud to have developed a strategic alliance with Gibson & Associates (Gibson), an operations-focused management consulting firm with particular expertise in strategic sourcing and procurement. Gibson prides themselves on implementation-focused processes and, most important, tangible bottom line results.

By combining GMT’s enterprise-wide planning process with Gibson’s indepth experience in strategic sourcing, this partnership provides clients with a unique advantage: value-added supplier relationships and procurement initiatives that directly support the overall direction of the business.

The GMT/Gibson alliance promises a high return on investment—because clients can leverage the in-depth expertise and experience of both partners, without supporting the broader infrastructure and higher overhead costs of larger consulting firms.

Working together, GMT and Gibson target clients’ most pressing sourcing challenges to add bottom-line value in the short term, as well as provide the skills and process necessary to implement an internal long-term strategy.

A Comprehensive Approach to Procurement

Based on more than a decade of strategic sourcing experience, Gibson & Associates applies a comprehensive strategic sourcing approach that includes three phases:

	Internal sourcing strategy development. Gibson works with client personnel, organized into crossfunctional operations teams, to gain a true understanding of the corporate mission, as well as the traditional sourcing approach. Gibson creates an optimal vendor contract mix (long-term versus short-term), a central sourcing strategy, and a plan for identifying and qualifying worldwide suppliers.
	Definition of vendor strategy. Next, Gibson works with the global vendor database to assess an individual supplier’s capacity, technology capabilities, and ability to integrate their operations into the overall client supply chain. Gibson also analyzes competitors’ sourcing strategies, as well as best-inclass practices both inside and outside the industry.
	Customer strategy creation. Finally, Gibson creates customized customer service programs that are built around chosen suppliers so that customer service and satisfaction levels become a shared responsibility with vendors.

Creating Strategic Supplier Relationships

The core of Gibson’s capabilities lies in the firm’s ability to identify and assist their clients in developing lasting relationships with the worldwide suppliers who can best support the client’s strategic direction. By involving suppliers in the strategic vision of the business, Gibson helps clients to see both short- and long-term benefits in service, quality, operational efficiency, planning, and innovation.

Many companies do not utilize the full value of their suppliers as business partners or leverage suppliers’ ability to contribute to the overall direction for the business. Gibson screens both existing and new suppliers on a global basis to identify those best equipped to support the client’s sourcing challenges. Next, they create one-on-one interactions, including site visits, to assess each supplier’s strategic strengths.

By sharing the overall business strategy with suppliers and assessing their ability to truly contribute over time, Gibson helps its clients to create long-term relationships based on shared goals and objectives. These relationships deliver lasting value that go beyond typical sourcing benefits.

Looking Beyond “Lowest Price”

Increasingly, manufacturers in both business-tobusiness and business-to-consumer markets are facing crippling cost pressures. The growth of offshore competitors, the efficiencies enabled by e-business tools, the rise of mass merchants and “big box” retailers—all have contributed to a business environment focused on immediate cost reduction.

Gibson recognizes that true cost reduction is a complex issue. In its purest form, it must focus on achieving the lowest overallcompany cost, not simply the best pricing for a given product or component.

While competitive pricing is important, the lowest supplier cost is the result of an optimal mix of short lead times, reduced administration and paper flow, outstanding engineering and technical support, and many other important performance metrics.

In addition, the lowest supplier cost means identifying the right vendors to support the long-term growth of the business, as well as the client’s quality, brand, customer service, and strategic vision.

GMT and Gibson: Delivering Lasting Value

Combining years of top-level strategy experience with specialized knowledge in sourcing and procurement, the GMT/Gibson alliance delivers lasting value for clients.

Too often, even the best-crafted corporate strategies fail at the implementation level because operations, supplier, and customer activities are not directly linked to the overall direction of the enterprise.

With a comprehensive approach that begins with top-level strategy definition, GMT and Gibson align internal operations, procurement, and customer service activities through a strategic sourcing process to ensure a far greater return on investment for their clients.