We were intrigued by a recent article in MIT's Supply Chain Strategies newsletter by Randy Fike of AlixPartners on improving results from Asian sourcing initiatives for two reasons.

First, Fike took an angle to the problem that was different than most; second, he offered a lot more specifics and detail than typically found in these kind of articles.

That includes the graphic below, which we modeled from a similar one in the article. It represents a "Supplier Relationship Management" organizational structure deployed at one AlixPartners' client. To better understand its meaning, you can view our full article (see Rescuing Dwindling Offshore Savings with Supplier Relationship Management 2.0), but even stand alone, it offers an interesting view of how an offshore procurement organization might be structured.

Source: Randy Fike, AlixPartners/MIT's Supply Chain Strategies Newsletter

Fike's key point is that too often in low-cost country sourcing operations, there is a lack of clarity of roles, responsibilities and processes. He also has strong views on how domestic and Asia teams need to be balanced.

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