Sam Achampong

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, no worries! Check them all out here: We added a special Saturday episode on May 9th and featured another speaker from the 2020 AIAG CR Summit, Eric Kane with Bloomberg, and his insights from the conference.   On Monday, we continued our Supply Chain Super Trends series with Sarah Barnes-Humphrey with Let’s Talk Supply Chain. Supply Chain Super Trend #3 focused on a holistic approach to supply chain TALENT.     Mike Griswold with Gartner joined us for another excellent livestream last week, and we published it as a podcast episode on Tuesday. He shared his latest observations on how COVID-19 is impacting global supply chains. A MUST-listen!     We continued our interviews with the speakers from the AIAG CR Summit on Wednesday, with great insights from Dr. Assheton Carter with TDI Sustainability.     Thursday we published our popular Supply Chain Buzz, with Scott and Greg sharing and discussing the latest news and events in Supply Chain and beyond.     And on Friday, we wrapped up the interviews with the extrordinary speakers from the AIAG CR Summit, with Brian Rich…