Strategic Value Adding Purchasing
An effective purchasing strategy is at the core of successful purchasing departments. Strategies that offer total value to an organization should be the goal of all purchasing organizations. Purchasing professionals around the world are always in search of new strategies that creatively reduce costs and add previously unrealized value to an organization. Since motivating multi-company groups is difficult, the purchasing department must offer a clear strategy that offers value to all involved. Hence, Purchasing Programs, procuring products plus services, is a strategy that can be employed successfully to bring value to all involved. The theory of Purchasing Programs is to leverage vendors to offer products and services — whereas previously — vendors were only offering products.
A New Wave of Customer-Driven Offerings: The SAGA Process
In the past, companies have expanded their product lines via strategic acquisition of complimentary companies. More recently companies have expanded their product offerings by creating strategic alliances with other companies to surround clients with recognizable brands. The wave of the future is to expand through customer requested and customer led programs. Cruise ship operators have long known that the only way to guarantee repeat business is by offering the guest a fair price and by exceeding all of the guests expectations. To meet these ends, cruise ship operators are requiring more specialized services in support of the expanded needs of guests. This growing trend of vendors that focus on customer needs is already effecting the field of vessel procurement.
Unitor Launches New IT Program
Unitor has taken the next step in giving customers the power to manage their fleets. Customer empowerment in the area of information technology is the next generation of service supported product offerings. Unitor's new information technology system named PartnerSHIP offers subscribers access to all critical information regarding their fleet as well as data about Unitor's worldwide network. This Web-based program offers secure and direct customer access into Unitor's mainframe computer. This computer network acts as a data repository for all of the customer's information. In conjunction with that information it also accesses Unitor's own central database regarding its products, services and port information through a secure web server.
As SOLAS Deadline Nears, More Composite Use is Expected
Composites have been utilized in various applications in the shipbuilding industry in order to meet countless requirements of shipyards and ship owners. Composites have found their way into areas such as hull design for smaller vessels to modular bathroom units on larger vessels. Research and development with composites has also created Trevira fabric. Composites continue to evolve along with the shipbuilding industry, and one should expect to see more wide spread use of this material in years to come. In order to better understand composites one must review the creation of this modern material, and then one can examine the uses of this product. The general definition for composite material is the combination of two or more materials in order to create a completely new material.
