To target operational efficiency improvements, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. has introduced its Work Right Procurement Initiative, according to a December 2006 Critical Issues report released by CAPS Research -- a non-profit, independent research organization co-sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and the Institute for Supply Management.
The program enables business units to help dictate which projects sourcing is working on and involved with. The concept, which creates a pull versus push mentality, assumes that if the business unit is instrumental in instigating sourcing involvement, there will be less resistance and everyone is more likely to be aligned toward reducing costs.
Procurement still plays the larger role in determining how a process or category operates, but the business unit president should sign off on what that agenda is. For Bristol-Myers Squibb, one true success story of this concept involves beakers. The R&D area saw a need to standardize beakers, realizing that everyone in the firm has an obligation to work toward cumulative cost reductions.
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