Strategic Vendor Relations a better way forward

摘要

Sole source contracts in strategic alliances are not always the milk and honey partnership touted by those who support them. In this two-part feature, we present the personal viewpoints of both the end users and the vendors. First, the author in his position as a reliability professional for the pump users, describes how, in his experience, sole source contracts can 'go by the wayside'. He believes that the way forward is Strategic Vendor Relations. These are more informal agreements with a limited number of vendors per product line, which, Joe argues, offer greater opportunities than sole source contracts to reduce the plant's overall costs while increasing the plant's overall uptime.