Patrick Kelly

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…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now! We started this week off with a very special episode of Supply Chain Now. Host Scott Luton and co-host Jenny Froome interview Ramatu Abdulkadir the Head of Pharmacy Department for the National Ear Care Centre at Kaduna. One of the main topics of discussion are the huge supply chain challenges that Africa is facing right now. For Monday’s This Week In Business History episode, Scott Luton gives insight on 3 different figures and how their contributions were critical and aligned with humanity & our march forward. On Tuesday, we released a TEK TOK classic episode with host Karin Bursa and guest host from Supply Chain Now Scott Luton. For this episode, they get to chat with one of the top 50 retail technology influencers, Paula Rosenblum. Paula is also the Founder and Managing Partner for RSR Research. On Wednesday we released an episode of Supply Chain Now with Scott Luton. He had a great conversation with author and the founder of The Memo, LLC, Minda Harts. These two talk about the importance of asking for what you need and…