Rising prices and competitive pressures can strain supply-chain relationships seriously, while ratcheting up the need for plastics processors to stay abreast of the latest developments. Two sessions at the June 23 Management Day conference in Cleveland will address those issues.
Lou Gaviglia, corporate vice president of contract manufacturing for Nypro Inc., is an experienced hand at participating in online auctions. As Nypro's primary contact with key customers Nokia Oyj, Dell Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., he will offer advice on how to win e-auctions without being the lowest bidder - and when to bail out. Meanwhile, Jeff Mengel, a partner at Plante & Moran PLLC, will provide an overview on electronic bidding strategies.
A separate panel will discuss how best to manage the dynamics of supplier relationships. Marcella Turk, previously worldwide resin buyer for Black & Decker Corp., now is applying that knowledge as global sourcing leader for plastics at the $13 billion GE Healthcare Technologies. She will share her insights into the types of metrics and scorecards that original equipment manufacturers use to rate and choose suppliers. Hazel Beck, chief executive officer of Value Innovations Ltd. in San Diego, will suggest tools for building supplier relationships, and Jeff Wincel, president of LSC Consulting Group in Holland, Mich., will discuss methods for ``leaning'' the supply chain as well as supplier warranty and liability issues.
Plastics News is organizing Management Day and Design Day conferences as part of the June 22-24 Plastics Encounter Midwest trade show in Cleveland.
The event is collocated with MoldMaking Expo 2004 and the AmCon American Contract Manufacturers show. Full agendas and additional details are online at www.plasticse counter.com.
