Complex machinery and plants are usually procured by top management, as well as the development and engineering department. Buyers are just vicarious agents. However, they cannot only negotiate better terms but optimize the...

Purchasing. Long treated like poor relations, the department is gaining importance in many places. But the personnel market has a gap: There are hardly any of the all-rounders so much in demand.

Kerkhoff Consulting is used to handle tough challenges. That's true especially for China.

In the future, intelligent transport systems are to take goods automatically from the producer to the customer. The new technologies already passed their first practice tests.

Shopping with a strategy: Why natural scientists are ever more in demand in the field of purchasing

Following a period of cost reductions, investments are again on top of the agenda at German companies. Purchasing capital goods is a complex process and considered the most prestigious discipline in purchasing. In this interview,...

In times of lean budgets and looming credit crunches, capital goods purchasing will require more than just price comparisons. The following trade paper describes which levers bring about successful purchasing.

Christine Yu, Managing Director of Kerkhoff Consulting in China, about management consulting in Cathay, an old name for the Middle Empire.

Entrepreneurs don't like consultants. When you are looking for the reasons, you will encounter mistrust, psychological complexes – and the unplumbed depths of the human soul. Insights into a troubled relationship

Greece is not yet saved after having taken a haircut. Its restructuring will be long and painful: manager magazin online shows five examples of how management consultants and debt experts want to solve the case of Greece.

Investments are again at the very top of the to-do list — five levers for full utilization of potentials

German consultants are in demand worldwide. Because they are considered cost-conscious and reliable

The triple catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor failure one year ago yesterday had hit Japan hard – economically as well. Yet, Japan's industry recovered amazingly fast. Now reconstruction is overshadowed by the...

Danger looms if technical departments determine conditions for capital goods together with suppliers. That will result in unexpected follow-up costs.

Global sourcing has become a strategically vital factor for companies.

A huge choice is available on the world procurement market, which means it is all the more important for purchasers to be focused and smart with their orders.

Strategically done, outsourcing will provide cost benefits

Given the increasing competitive pressure, outsourcing is becoming an important issue for ever more companies. Purchasing and its role in this respect – that had been the subject of a talk between Daniel Zabota, Editor in Chief...

The 2009 crisis is far away; industry is realizing another record year.

Sales are increasing in double digits but profit margins are shrinking.

Purchasing departments are facing special challenges in the procurement of capital goods: They must handle negotiations with suppliers, keep an eye on the life cycle costs of capital goods, and generally act as interface...

The complexity of parts is ever increasing, the supply chain is getting longer, the number of interfaces is growing. Modern manufacturing enterprises must specifically manage the manifold variants to minimize the costs in the...

In 2012, technical purchasing trends concern, on the one hand, further reductions of procurement prices; on the other hand, the area of functions and responsibilities expands further: In the future, purchasers have to be in...

INTERVIEW Management consultant Gerd Kerkhoff about the "dorf" in Düsseldorf – dorf meaning village or hamlet; also about the municipal campaign against the city's chichi image, its advantages versus Berlin and the lively...

The budget deficit could drop by one fifth with a modern procurement system

Buyers in Austria's energy industry are top earners. Overall, the first comprehensive study on purchasing detects the need to catch up all around and notes, for the future, a significant upgrading of purchasing departments.

Buyers do not yet get paid in accordance with their strategic responsibility. That will change – believe the initiators of the first domestic study on buyers' salaries.

Special consultants implement their ideas and concepts in factories and offices – together with the workforce

High level of individualization, low level of professionalism

In recent years, China's importance as a procurement market also increased very much for Germany's small and medium-sized enterprises. In an interview, Managing Director Gerald Boess of Kerkhoff Consulting International talked...

Relationships are the foundations of business. Also a good meal or a token gift. But beware! Many companies have rigid compliance rules. There's nothing doing, and nothing at all for professional buyers. The roundtable of...

Consultants usually have a difficult time with small and medium-sized business owners and managers. Because they prefer to settle everything on their own

In the final months of a year, many companies start planning for the next year. That's why All about Sourcing wanted to know from leading procurement consultancies and from enterprises what challenges they can see in purchasing...

How companies can handle exorbitantly fluctuating raw material costs even without additional financing.

Purchasing consultant Gerd Kerkhoff about markets going crazy, the right procurement strategy, China's unpredictability, and what the German humorist, comedian, art director and writer Loriot had to do with single sourcing.

Business in the consulting industry is cooling off. Consulting contracts are only awarded after tough reviews of bids, costs and benefits

Unbeatable in mass production – but is China already on the brink of instability?

Interview: Christian Michalak, Managing Director Projects at Kerkhoff Consulting, on how small and medium enterprises optimize their steel purchases

One in five businesses needs outside capital

Can Web platforms displace the classical purchasing consultant? The debate is getting under way

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)—A crucial risk for the food industry is the availability of agricultural commodities in adequate quantities, at reasonable prices, as well as in the required quality. In a talk with Dow Jones, Jürgen Pahl,...

In German companies, the topic of compliance certainly rates highly; especially their purchasing departments are under close scrutiny. However, far from all companies have already set up a compliance guideline and only a minority...

Gerald Boess

Managing Director for the locations China, India and Turkey, Kerkhoff Consulting

To have as much liquidity as possible, companies collect receivables earlier and pay bills later. But most of their capital is tied up in warehouses – excessively high inventories considerably burden finances.

Purchasing departments not sufficiently tied into internal decision-making processes

In a company's own organization, profits are hidden in purchasing

Risk control. To protect against new dangers, companies need to do some rethinking – brains and intuition are required instead of checklists.

PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT. Modern supply chains are spinning ever more tightly around our planet. But the more intertwined the net becomes, the more fragile it will also be: Natural disasters, crop failures or political upheavals...

Presents and favors are out. Transparency and digital sales portals have ended nepotism in purchasing. Those will be successful today who know their customers better than the competition.

For decades, industrial buyers lived in the shadows as procurement people. Due to increasing complexities, internationalization and strategic tasks, buyers can move up the career ladder all the way to the management board in some...

Suppliers are increasingly taken up on their promises in terms of quality management and responsibility for products after their installation. Suppliers will take over maintenance work and accompany machines over their entire...

Environmental protection is expensive. Thus, many buyers find themselves in a catch-22 situation because the lower the value of the goods, the faster the cost benefit will be neutralized. Companies nonetheless doing their...