Do you know your suppliers' performance today and whether they have the potential to support your ongoing and future requirements? Are you implementing Lean in your company and now realize that it cannot be fully successful without Lean suppliers? Do you have the right suppliers for the journey and are they willing and able to change? Understanding supplier capabilities and performance is vital to ensuring a well-functioning supply network. Having suppliers that are in sync with you is important, not just from a Lean material flow perspective but also from a relationship, cultural and leadership commitment viewpoint.

This interactive workshop will help you learn to develop and implement a supplier evaluation and development process in a Lean environment to help you reduce costs, lower risk and improve both the performance of your company and your suppliers, and reap the benefits of Lean in the supply chain. We will focus on supplier performance management and development issues beyond just Lean assessment in a Lean environment. We will also include exercises, a short video on Lean supplier development and provide actual business examples.

• Align supplier performance expectations and criteria with the needs of your business
• Develop a supplier evaluation process that fits your company
• Create an understanding of what a Lean supplier is in your company's environment
• Develop strategies and goals for creating Lean suppliers
• Define an approach and overall business process for selecting and developing Lean suppliers
• Manage critical supplier relationships to maximize value to your company
• Get from strategy to evaluation to action -- to Lean supplier development and performance improvement

Sherry Gordon

Sherry Gordon is an entrepreneur, executive and management consultant, and President of Value Chain Group, a supply management and performance excellence consultancy. Sherry was founder and CEO of Valuedge, which offered supplier evaluation software and was acquired by Emptoris, where she was Vice President, Supplier Performance. Prior to founding Valuedge, Sherry ran the New England Suppliers Institute (NESI), a non-profit organization focused on improving customer-supplier business relationships and on using Lean enterprise practices to improve supplier performance. Sherry also held positions with several major manufacturing and distribution companies and management consulting firms.

Sherry's e-book, Improving Company Performance Through Supply Chain Management Practices, was published in 1999.  She produced a video in 2000, Creating the Lean Supply Chain: Implementation Stories.  In 2002 and 2005, Supply and Demand Chain Executive magazine chose her as a 'Pro to Know'. Her article, 'Seven Steps to Measure Supplier Performance,' appeared in the August 2005 issue of Quality Progress. She is also author of the book, Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence (J. Ross, 2008).

Sherry is a frequent speaker on performance improvement and supply management topics and has spoken at events for ISM, The Conference Board, ASQ, Supply Chain Council, Foundation for Strategic Sourcing, PMAC and others.  Sherry was Chairperson of the 2004, 2005 and 2006 AME/IndustryWeek Best Plants Conferences.  She has a BA from University of Michigan, MA from Columbia University and MBA from Simmons College School of Management.  Sherry is also on the Board at Simmons School of Management Entrepreneurship Program.