Manufacturing Industry
Thomas Murphy, global procurement director, Instron.(Interview)
Purchasing, April, 2006
Interview by Paul Teague PLAYER: Thomas Murphy, global procurement director, Instron, Norwood, Mass. ANNUAL SPEND: $15 million, direct. BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Leveraging the buy. "We manufacture small quantities of a lot of products. I work to get our suppliers of such components as ball screws to see us as the large customer that we are, not a small customer." ENGINEERING INVOLVEMENT: Works closely with engineering staff early in projects to identify new technologies and cost-savings strategies.
C-LEVEL RELATIONSHIPS: Works directly with the company's executive committee at beginning of each year to establish strategic initiatives. Example: identified weak currencies as a potential problem, so moved some manufacturing from Europe to U.S....
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