Alex Ramirez

Heading right into October (can you believe it’s next week??) with more great interviews, conversations, livestreams, and episodes!   We started the week with a new episode in our Logistics with Purpose series. Pat Plonski joined Scott, Greg, and Enrique to celebrate 50 million books for Africa!     On Tuesday, Scott and Greg welcomed Mike Griswold with Gartner back to the podcast as they discussed the top three things to know in supply chain today and tomorrow.     We published our Supply Chain Buzz on Wednesday, and Scott and Jamin were happy to welcome Sarah Barnes-Humphrey with Let’s Talk Supply Chain to the show!     On Thursday, Greg continued his conversation with Ben Gordon of Cambridge Capital for part two of the interview for TECHquila Sunrise.     And Friday, Scott and Greg were excited to welcome one of their favorite Supply Chain News writers, Emma Cosgrove with Supply Chain Dive, to the podcast!   Which was your favorite episode? Never miss an episode by subscribing to Supply Chain Now! Make sure you tune in next week for more great conversation, timely topics, and exceptional guests.

Special Guest Blog Post written by Bernadine Henderson Ms. Henderson, senior director of procurement at Protolabs, lifts the lid on buying in manufacturing and why relationships are central to it.   Simply put, the job of a buyer is really about buying the right thing at the right time for the right price. It sounds simple, but it really is very complicated because everything that’s going on in the world impacts the timing, the availability, and the price of the product. This means that buying has recently got a lot more complicated. World events have very real consequences on global supply chains. Just one example is the way in which buyers have responded to tariffs in the U.S. by re-routing sourcing locations. It takes a certain amount of agility to be a buyer in 2025, and this quick responsiveness is helped along by one key ingredient, and that is strong relationships with suppliers. Relationships Built on Trust A widely held misconception is that buyers are only interested in getting to the lowest price possible. In fact, the most important thing to a buyer is for suppliers to bring solutions that deliver overall value. In my experience, a really strong supplier…