"Perfection is impossible. Improvement is essential." This is how IBT's new Corporate Procurement Manager, Larry Smith, sums up the philosophy behind the seminar he and Rex Davis, Vice President Supply Chain, will lead at Tech X 500: Rev Up Your Procurement Partnerships.

As a distributor, IBT deals with over than 500 suppliers. The company is continually examining all the ways that suppliers perform, in large matters and small ones.

At Tech X 500, IBT will share the essentials to creating and administering an effective Supplier Evaluation Program.

"This evaluation program is critical for measuring the strengths and weaknesses of our suppliers," Smith reports. "Our presentation at Tech X 500 will show our customers how to use the same effective means for uncovering hidden waste and inefficient use of their biggest resource, the suppliers they deal with each and every day.

"We will cover four major tools (internal surveys, performance metrics, business summaries and supplier feedback) that buyers, purchasing agents and purchasing managers need to use in order to stay ahead of their competitors and get the most from their supplier relationships."

The purpose of IBT's Supplier Assessment Program is to provide accurate and timely feedback across all business units within the company that are directly affected by supplier performance.

"At Tech X 500," Rex Davis says, "we will show our customers how to do the same thing. There are many reasons why management of supplier performance is critical to the future success of any organization:

• You can’t manage what you don’t measure.
• Supplier evaluation identifies Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) within the supplier base.
• Efficiency reduces the overall cost of doing business with each supplier.
• Uncover potential hidden waste such as administrative costs and inefficient use of resources.
• Improving order cycle time and reducing spoilage returns e nhances competitiveness.
• Evaluation provides the knowledge to make informed business decisions.

"We invite the purchasing professionals of all of our customers to join us for this event at Tech X 500. IBT has a commitment to serving all of our customers with consistent excellence. By meeting together to define and measure what "excellence" truly means, we can all make sure the bar is constantly being raised."

Register for Tech X 500 and secure your seat for Rev Up Your Procurement Partnerships.