Pedro Serafin

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…

Another great week here at Supply Chain Now! Have you listened to all the episodes? If not, you can check them all out here: On Monday, Scott and Greg welcomed Mark Messina & Simon Houghton of Geek+ to the podcast!     Scott and Greg also welcomed Mike Griswold from Gartner to SCN Live to talk about all the latest supply chain news.     On Tuesday, Scott and Greg welcome Allison Krache Giddens of Win-Tech, Inc. to the podcast in collaboration with AIAG’s Supply Chain Summit.     Michael Neme joined host Jamin Alvidrez on Logistics & Beyond on Tuesday as well to share his mindset and some of the keys to his passion: Supply Chain Consultative Sales.     On Wednesday, Scott and Greg welcomed Karin Bursa and Jamin Alvidrez for the Supply Chain Buzz, to discuss the top news in supply chain for the week.     Also, Scott and Greg discussed the top news in supply chain with special guest, Guy Courtin of 6 River Systems     On TECHquila Sunrise this Thursday, Greg White welcomed Kinaxis CEO John Sicard to the podcast.     And on Friday, we ended the week with Scott & Greg…