Ryan Williams

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…

What a week! Five episodes, four livestreams, and so much to listen to and watch! Did you catch all the episodes? If not, listen here! On Monday, we featured another great episode in This Week in Business History, where Scott looks back at some of the biggest historical events in business history for the week ahead. This week, he spoke about the business legacy of the Apollo missions.   Supply Chain Now · “This Week in Business History for July 20th: The Legacy of the Apollo Program”     Then on Tuesday, Chris Barnes proved that Supply Chain is in fact anything but boring with a cross-over episode of Supply Chain is Boring with Data & WMS Pioneer, special guest John Hill.   Supply Chain Now · “Data Collection is Boring: Data and WMS Pioneer John Hill on Supply Chain is Boring”     On Wednesday we published the Supply Chain Buzz, where Greg and Scott discussed the top supply chain news of the week, and were joined by special guest David Shillingford, Chairman of Resilience360.   Supply Chain Now · “The Supply Chain Buzz for July 20th Featuring David Shillingford with Resilience360”   On Thursday, we shared another great…