From the category archives:

Tips for Purchasing Managers

Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Your Supply Chain

by George Muha on April 18, 2012

Boo!  Don’t be so jumpy!  It’s just a supply chain.  But don’t think you’re the only one that gets freaked out by this part of their operation.  The majority of U.S. companies operate a subpar supply chain.  In my opinion, less than 10% of companies have any kind of plan mapped out concerning this part [...]

{ 0 comments }

What Can a Company Do if Freight is Eating Away Profits?

by George Muha March 25, 2012

Recently I wrote an article titled Knowing How Freight Relates as a Percentage of Invoice.  That article might have hit home for some companies because, believe it or not, many companies have no freaking idea how freight relates as a percentage of invoice.  Nor do they know what to do even if they did know [...]

Read the full article →

Knowing How Freight Relates as a Precentage of Invoice

by George Muha March 18, 2012

Some popular business sayings that are relevant today are “companies don’t know what they don’t know”, “knowledge is power” and “you cannot manage what you cannot measure”.  Despite the fact that many executives agree with these quotes and can even be heard saying them, most do not utilize this methodology where it counts the most…within [...]

Read the full article →

Keeping it Simple, Understanding Customers Needs

by George Muha February 2, 2012

Replace tech rider to engineer, FOH mixer to sales person, artist to customer service department, tour accountant to budget manager, local sound company to inventory manager and instead of saying “what the venue actually needed” to “what the customer actually needed”.  Now isn’t that life imitating art, I don’t know what is.

Read the full article →

Fuel Price Graph: 2008-2012

by George Muha January 25, 2012

For those of you who tend to be concerned with fuel prices (in other words, all of us), I thought this was a good visual.  Fuel prices have not peaked to the levels of mid 2008 which is a good thing.  But diesel did rise 29% from 2010 to 2011.  However, the Department of Energy [...]

Read the full article →

Kiss Your Supply Chain

by George Muha January 19, 2012

Kiss your supply chain.  No, I am not telling you to kiss your supply chain that way you weirdo!  I’m talking about the K.I.S.S. way.  You know, the Keep It Simple Silly way! A very smart person told me one time that the best ideas don’t always get the best results.  Sometimes it’s the simple [...]

Read the full article →

You Know You’re In Trouble When You Hear Yourself Say This Phrase

by George Muha January 18, 2012

Do you question the way your company does certain things and wonder if there might be a better way things could be done?  Here’s a simple test to see if your company has any fangled processes in place that take much more time, man power and money than it should.  Simply ask the people who [...]

Read the full article →

Rail, The Other White Meat

by George Muha January 17, 2012

A great alternative to consider when trying to reduce overall transportation costs is rail.  A rail provider can come to your facility and pick up your load just like a truckload carrier.  The difference is for the line haul portion of trip, your shipment is moving via rail road. The down side of using rail [...]

Read the full article →

Creating More Profitable “FREE FREIGHT” Rules

by George Muha January 16, 2012

HAVING AN EQUALIZED “FREE FREIGHT” PROGRAM KILLS PROFITS, SO CHANGE IT It’s common for shippers to have an equalized free freight program.  What I mean by equalized freight program I am talking about offering “free freight” to customers who purchase a certain amount of volume of goods, regardless of their geographical location.  The problem is [...]

Read the full article →

Freight Audit Companies Fall Short in this One Area: Aged Invioces

by George Muha October 11, 2011

This post is going to be short, sweet and to the point.  I love what a good freight audit company can do for a shipper!  These firms usually can process invoices way more effectively than a shipper can on their own.  In addition, some of these firms can output metrics and business intelligence that can [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries