AGILITY AT WORK

Agility At Work

At Lynx Global, our motto is “agility at work”. At our all business units, at our each cooperation and at our each operation in all industrial fields we do not compromise on our this core-motivation.

As Lynx Global people, we always follow personal agility philosophy, agile leadership methods and agile organization structures at our all operations. The considerable advantages of the “agility at work” principles against the other understandings of work and cooperation realization have been the reasons for us to choose this path. We are thankful to our all hardworking and devoted team members that have perceived the components of agility well and have been learning to avoid prejudices in detail which prevent the increasing of agility and have been precisely applicating the right strategies to overcome them all successfully.

Agile people form agile organizations. Agile organizations are the structures that have the capability of identifying opportunities by acting quickly, revealing them and transforming them into performance. These organizations, by thinking innovative, realize new products and services in efficient and productive ways. Agility is becoming a necessity day by day for the success of realizing business. Agile organizations grow much faster and operate much more profitably compared to non-agile organizations.

It is gratifying that agility is variable, improvable and developable. Agility is more than 80% learnable. These are good news. As agile employees have higher job and career satisfaction levels, as they work with much higher performance, as they contribute to company profitability and overall success at a higher level, as they produce and apply original and useful ideas much easier and often and as they provide proactive progresses in a more flexible mindset; all these together can be given as solid examples of elements that provide a better understanding of the importance of agility, agile leadership and agile organization.

Personal Agility in Lynx Global, it started with the adoption of a flexible mindset that facilitates producing and applying original and useful ideas.

In this direction, we always proceed with the IDEA model. 

Investigate: We seek opportunities to improve existing products, services or business processes  
Design: We produce concepts that lead development 
Energize: We provide the ability to influence others, inspire and provide voluntary support for new ideas 
Action: We show courage and take the risk of making mistakes; we transform ideas into feasible plans, we try the plans and change them if necessary. We consider new ideas as permanent parts of our business processes. 

We believe that the only way to make sense of change is to dive into it, act with it and participate in dance. We know that if there is no change, there will be no opportunities for innovation, renovation and development. We are confident that it is inevitable that those who initiate change have better opportunities to manage change. After all, we are all aware that there is nothing permanent except change, right?

While taking a look at Personal Agility components; let us not forget that innovation is the line that separates the leader and the follower.

INVESTIGATE

Openness

It is to be willing to take the advantage of new ideas and opportunities. At Lynx Global, we are interested in many different topics, go out of our ways to learn new things and obtain new experiences. Being open to new experiences, it provides us the chance to put together the ideas that we couldn't get in a different situation, so; it helps us be more agile.

Foresight & Preliminary Action

It is to predict the future and act for change. At Lynx Global, we actively seek ways to improve products, services and processes. We identify issues that can evolve for the benefit of our organization and take the initiative and share our ideas with our management and colleagues.

DESIGN

Generating Ideas

It is to develop different solutions and ideas for problems. At Lynx Global, we see problems from many different angles and generate many different ideas. Producing lots of ideas, as it is a must for innovation and agility, being strong in this field has a critical importance for us.

Being Focused

It is, concentrating on what is important. At Lynx Global, we keep our attention while working on new ideas. We understand the priorities and we are not affected by the factors that can distract us. In everyday life, our this characteristic is essentially a situation that should be appreciated. Because; it is very difficult to stay focused due to different blockers.

Cooperation

It is to provide strong communication and interaction with others to develop ideas. At Lynx Global, while each of us develops an idea, we want other people to contribute as well. We use discussion and mutual exchange of views for innovation, we ensure that other people are constantly in the process, so that, they can test and improve their ideas too. This skill is really important. Because; while very few great ideas can come from just one person, the most innovative and key ideas are often the result of gathering of many different minds and by combining many different ideas and evolving them towards the best idea.

Self Belief

It is believing in yourself to be original and innovative. At Lynx Global, we believe that we have the capacity to come up with different ideas that will benefit our organization and we perceive ourselves as “original and innovative”. This sense of "self-confidence" provides us with an important support in our innovation processes, brings a serious motivational effect, helps to overcome difficulties and learn from our mistakes.

ENERGIZE

Lead

It is the ability to influence others, inspire and provide voluntary support for new ideas. At Lynx Global, we are skilled in the matters of; influencing people of critical importance, inspiring them with our ideas and winning their volunteer support for our ideas, besides; our being “believed and trusted” people, plays an important role in our success in this subject. This is a very critical step in the process of implementing new ideas.

ACTION

Not a word, it's an act 

Showing courage and taking the risk of making mistakes; transforming ideas into feasible plans, trying plans and changing them if necessary. Considering new ideas as permanent parts of business processes. At Lynx Global, we are always ready to take risks bravely for the realization of our ideas. While some people do this only when they feel success is guaranteed, we also prepare ourselves for making mistakes. Only a small proportion of “make-a-difference class” innovations emerge without risk. 

At Lynx Global, each of us know very well that; to be original and innovative, it requires breaking the settled patterns to look at everything from a different angle. While trying to discover opportunities for innovation, people traditionally think to start to work by identifying problems and then they focus on producing solutions. On the other hand, in our processes of performing operations where agility is always at work, we work in the opposite direction. 

Let's try to explain the agility principle we mentioned with a simple example. How do you keep cold your cold coffee without spoiling its taste? We first identified the problem, now, looking for a solution to this problem; it means entering a long, complex, tiring and boring process. On the other hand; to answer the question of what can be done with an ice cube made of coffee, it means looking for a problem area where an already found solution can be applied, it allows entering a much shorter, simple, energetic and enjoyable process.

Our this strategy has two stages:

Stage 1: With SCREAM, we design and implement a new version of an existing product, service or process.

Substitue

We put something different instead of a part of the product, service or process. For example; while using a top-fill and shaking technology in washing machines for a long time, the roller inside the machine was removed and replaced by a rapidly rotating drum. After all, the vast majority of washing machines in the world have the structure to be filled by the front today.

Combine

We combine multiple products, goals or resources. For example; with Netflix; DVD stores, mail distribution and internet are combined in one application. 

Reverse

We reverse the process or do just the opposite of what we are doing now. For example; with variable furniture concept, instead of fixed shaped furnitures that just stand in place, self-adjusting furnitures to the owner's needs and movements and furnitures that can change their place and shape are designed, produced and used.

Eliminate

We remove some parts or sections of a product or service. For example; with automatic windscreen wipers and headlight systems, the operations of vehicle users to turn on-off the windscreen wipers and headlights and the hardware they use to provide these fall into disuse. 

Adapt

We adapt a product or service to meet a different purpose or use. For example; vehicle cameras, video and monitoring and sensing technologies are adapted to increase driver, vehicle and traffic flow safety. 

Magnify

We grow certain parts of a product or service and make them exaggerated. For example; with a compact interlocking shoe design that can change size; especially for young children who grow up fast, there is no need to buy new shoes frequently, with the mentioned function of the existing shoe, the size of the shoe can be be scaled up or down simply and easily. In the same way, little brothers, if they want to wear the same shoes, there is no problem. Though it was originally intended for undeveloped countries and the poor population, today, it is preferred by parents around the world.

Stage 2: We find an opportunity or problem that the new version can solve. 

Let's consider a restaurant. Have tablets at every table. This solution will be a cure to which problem in the subject business or how it will benefit this business? Very simple, customers, when they are ready, they will be able to enter their all orders with all relevant details into the restaurant's operating system quickly and easily by these tablets on the tables and will be able to make their payments quickly and easily from these tablets before leaving. 

Remember! All great thoughts and all great actions have beginnings that are perceived as absurd by many people. At Lynx Global, we do not believe that all inventions are due to needs. Because; history has shown us that, people first discover, invent, find and then they try to understand what they discovered, invented, found and how to use it at what subject, which means, trying to make sense of what they got. Wheel, electricity, diesel, internet… How were they invented or discovered?

We had stated that we work with agility, agile leadership and agile organization concepts in our every operation at Lynx Global. In this sense, agility is a scientific technique of business realization for us and therefore, we approach the concept of agility with a scientific analytics, we examine and understand the scientific foundations of the concept to make our agility more effective. 

Agility is a characteristic that could be improved and developed by understanding the way how our brain works. There are two independent systems that affect the behavior of our brain. The first of these is the “emotional system”. It is our automated side. It is the structure that enables us to feel sadness, happiness and all our other emotions. The second is the "rational system". It is our conscious and analytical side, slower than our emotional system. 

Most of our daily behaviors are automated and affected by our emotional system, our instincts. It takes a serious effort to put our rational system into action and to ensure it takes the control over our automated behavior. So; trying to change people's automatic behavior suddenly, can easily consume them and cause them to be lost.

To initiate a change and to successfully conclude it, it is necessary to address the feelings of people as well as their logic. In other words; it is important to show approaches to people that will feed their emotional systems through motivation and also that will be attractive to their rational systems through a clear direction.

Demonstration is the way to address the emotional system. Because; people, besides analyzing and thinking about their behavior, they change after they see and feel it. It is necessary to show people such a thing; this must give them a perspective on a problem that allows them to recover and realize the situation and make them experience a moment of peak about an exciting possible future. 

On the other hand; saying is the way to address the rational system. It requires us to determine clearly; the key messages to be given, why they matter, who we should persuade and how we do.

At Lynx Global, we do not give any place to the prejudices that impede the development of agility, to the stereotypical discourse and behavior models and most importantly to the "anchored mentality" structure. So, what's the anchored mentality?

Over time, the ways of thinking that transform into habit, which are not flexible, develop in the human mind. Just because of this harmful thinking model called anchored mentality; seeing everything differently, thinking innovative, providing extraordinary scrutiny are prevented and there systematically blinding prejudices occur.

While progressing in our works step by step with our IDEA model, We would like to briefly explain to you the details of why we do not absolutely give any place to the anchored mentality in our organization. 

While in the INVESTIGATE phase, because of the anchored mentality; there comes forward the structure called "Tunnel Vision", in which people miss rare opportunities for successful innovations, because of blindly focusing only on reaching a specific goal.

While in the DESIGN - IDEA PRODUCTION phase, because of the anchored mentality; there comes forward the structure called “Past Experience Prejudice”, in which it is believed that they are all the results of past experiences that how people think and how they perceive the world. 

This, in turn, while causing people to become anchored in the past, prevents them from seeing everything in a different and innovative way.

While in the DESIGN - IDEA ASSESSMENT phase, because of the anchored mentality; there comes forward the structure called ”Focus Effect”, in which people decide sometimes by caring less about some elements that may affect their decisions, which causes the decisions to be taken away from objectivity.

While in the ENERGIZE phase, because of the anchored mentality; there comes forward the structure called “Obsessive Mentality”, in which people prefer to maintain and continue their current status unchanged. This structure is already the archenemy of both agility concept and innovation and renovation concepts. This is often the main reason for meaningless insistence on continuing with the existing structure in products, services, processes and organizations.

While in the ACTION phase, because of the anchored mentality; there comes forward the structure called “The Illusion of Planning”, in which people think that they can complete many jobs simultaneously and easily and act on the basis of overly optimistic predictions in terms of finance, time and challenges and risk management and where eventually serious troubles are inevitable.

We have previously notified that, at Lynx Global, our motto is “agility at work”. At our all business units, at our each cooperation and at our each operation we do not compromise on our this core-motivation. 

In addition to this; considering our critical key approach for business; “competition today; essentially, it has become an experience not across companies but across their supply chains.”, we would like to inform you specifically about The Seven Habits of Our Highly Effective Purchasing Team in Lynx Global. 

This could be evaluated as an insight guide to understand how we can beat the rising costs and improve the margins for your business through the better buying strategies that we shall design and applicate for you and together with you and with our contracted direct manufacturer supplier partners. 

Actually; “The Seven Habits of Our Highly Effective Purchasing Team in Lynx Global” mentioned above will be the focus point for our most important and most demanded business unit and cooperation model we provide; “Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Consultancy & Agency”.

Here we go!

What can you do to combat rising costs in your industry? Due to multiple factors, costs are increasing and all industries are facing widespread inflation for the first time in many years. However; opportunities for savings exist. It just requires a new way of looking at many things.

The Seven Habits of Our Highly Effective Purchasing Team study will help you look a little closer at the world you know and will show you new ways of doing business. By just adopting a few new habits, your industry managers will not only maintain profitability but form new opportunities to increase it as well.

At Lynx Global, we cooperate with over 350 industrial companies as they are our specific service customers at our business unit of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Consultancy & Agency; helping them buy and procure with better conditions, get more competitive prices while maintaining quality and save time & money every day. Our supplier partners are the efficient and productive direct manufacturers in their industrial sectors and we have strong relationships built in long years through countless operations.

As you know, there are multiple causes behind today’s rising costs as; currency value changes, weather, minimum wages, business rates, global demand changes, economic uncertainty, regional or global politics & conflicts and interest rate increases etc.  The result is that; we are in an inflationary cycle that shows no signs of abating yet. Inflation is something we haven’t faced for many years and for many junior staff in almost all industries, it’s a total unknown.

One of the negatives of the flat pricing that we’ve seen for the past decade is that the complacency concept has set in. If prices aren’t rising, there’s no need to look for better deals. As a result, responsible teams develop bad buying habits. But with inflation now running at its highest level for years, seeking better deals has become an operational imperative. This is a wake up call for you to review your costs and to take purchasing more seriously. It’s also an opportunity to get rid of all of your bad purchasing habits and replace them with good ones which are the types that will maintain your business’s margins or even increase them in any economic cycle.

By using our team’s many years of buying experience, we’ve collected the best professional buying habits together here and we guarantee that if your business adopts even one of them, you’ll see significant savings and even obtain some surprising benefits. Remember! Inflation is an opportunity to replace bad purchasing habits with good ones. Good habits that maintain margins or even increase them. At the end; we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF OUR HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PURCHASING TEAM 

BEWARE THE SACRED COW

When it comes to purchasing; no product, ingredient, process, service or supplier should be considered as sacred. 

At every department in every industrial business, there will be certain product or service providers that are believed to be irreplaceable and critically important to maintain standards and success. These sacred cows come in many different disguises. They can be specialist suppliers of advanced technical equipments or highly complex chemical materials etc. However, everyday new products and services pop up in these categories as well, which make those sacred cows in fact replaceable, changeable in a matter of time.

So; ask the question please. Are they really necessary and how much does this choice cost your business each year?  Regularly viewing the sacred cows in your business brings multiple benefits. You could save money on better value substitutes and discover new and better quality products and suppliers in the marketplace that you and your team have overlooked. You may begin right here, right now.

Action:

Compile a list of the sacred cows in your business. Consider their value, compare prices and look around for other options. 

Case Study: 

A well known Tier-1 automotive metal stamping parts producer in Europe was using a brand of very expensive Wire-EDM wire electrodes for many years. The general manager and production manager were both very loyal to this brand which was only imported by two suppliers in the country. 

We conducted operation tests on our alternative Wire-EDM wire electrodes samples together with them at the Wire-EDM machines in their tool-shops and their technicians appreciated their cutting speed, cutting durability, cutting quality and cutting performance as the advantages of this Wire-EDM wire electrodes that we suggested which are produced in Vietnam by a French company which has its R&D Center and HeadQuarters in Paris. 

The annual saving for our this customer is achieved around 60.000 USD with this one small operation.

KEEP IT STRICTLY BUSINESS

Good businesses need strong relationships with suppliers, however; getting too close and cosy is just a step away from complacency concept has set in. 

Are you too close to suppliers? Do you know how many suppliers you have and when did you last compare their prices with the prices of their competitors? Do you know who else is out there? Yes, trust is essential to the purchasing processes, however; it is not a substitute for the improvement and development of industrial production practices or enhancing added value services. 

Each of your suppliers can prepare a performance summary for you itemising what you buy from them and which prices are paid. They should also offer you alternatives and give you product and price comparisons as well as providing you advices on buying commodity lines such as plastics or metals. If they aren’t doing this on a regular basis, ask them to start immediately.

A supplier who values your business and is doing all that can be done to keep it strong; it should also be bringing you with advices, forecasts and insights into the market, sharing knowledge and providing product workshops or access to producers and product trainings.

Action:

Review your suppliers and think about their products, service and conditions in compare with what you demand and then decide how to get it. Do you need to cuddle a vital supplier to get them to improve their offer or prod them by reviewing alternative options and requesting a better deal? Or, is it time to end the contract because there are more competitive suppliers with same or better quality of subject products and service?

Case Study:

The owner of a long-established plastics injection parts mass production company which supplies mostly for home appliances industry OEMs was struggling to maintain margins and was pushed hard by its customers to provide more competitive pricing against half a dozen of domestic and foreign competitor manufacturers which were focused on aggressive sales strategies to take their shares in the local market. 

They had cooperated with only two suppliers faithfully and exclusively for many years for their all needs of commodity materials such as plastics raw materials, masterbatches and one single supplier for all plastic injection moulds needs. Besides, they have never even heard about any energy saving modules for the hydraulic plastic injection moulding machines which was an opportunity to reduce their monthly bill of electricity around 30-50%.

A dangerous combination of laziness, familiarity and convenience had let the company staff continuously order more and more materials to the mentioned same suppliers without scrutiny for long years. An annual saving of 14% was achieved simply by ordering same quality level raw materials as commodities from four different and new, much more competitive and direct manufacturer suppliers and another annual saving of 24% was acquired by the engagement of three new alternative mould manufacturers as suppliers over the total cost of plastics injection moulds purchasing values and ownership expenses and periodical maintenance costs.

On the other hand; by phasing in SyncroSpeed energy saving modules for all of the hydraulic plastic injection moulding machines in their production lines, an annual saving of 42% at electricity cost was also obtained. As result; let alone losing their business share in the market, they achieved an increase of 25% at their annual sales turnover within the first year after our cooperation began with them.

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAIL

Complacency breeds contempt and as long as the business maintains its industrial and commercial practices without any economic enforcements, even the most trusted suppliers will not think about bringing out an idea or effort regarding an improvement or development about the products or services that they provide.  

There are plenty of tricks of business from short orders to sloppy weights and pricing around products with high wastage. To ensure that the business gets what it truly needs and what it has paid for, you need to have the required systems and people in place aiming to deal with all the related details. You also must make sure that your suppliers know you check all the details. There should be a structured planning and costing system, with an appropriate staff member put in charge for this critical process.

This process is also worth ensuring that you purchase the most cost effective inputs as products and services with the required quality levels for your business and you must always analyse the gross pricing versus net pricing when it comes to comparing the cost of purchasing against the total cost of ownership for the products and equipments you purchase. Controlling costs is all and always in the details and that brings taking maximum advantage at each buying operation.

Action:

Realizing good industrial practices for purchasing operations takes time, however; it’s a good habit that pays dividends over time. Maybe now is a good time to review your systems and processes to improve visibility and cost controls. 

Case Study:

One of our customers in the gold mining industry was trying to reduce the cost of watering processes in its facilities by preventing both evaporation in summer times and freezing in winter times at the large aqua tanks it operates by an efficient and durable insulation cover system.  

They were applying some low unit priced hollow shade balls made of unknown-origin, mixed, cheap, recycled plastic raw materials. Almost every week, they had to spend a considerable amount of money for labor needed to collect the balls flying away from the surfaces of the mentioned aqua tanks because of the strong winds and they had to replace all these millions of balls every two and a half years because of their weakness against the UV lights, heat, cold, corrosive chemicals in the water and other artificial and environmental effects.

In addition to this, many times a year, they had to deal with thousands of usd worth costs for repair and maintenance operations at their water circulation systems. Because, hundreds an even thousands of these weak shade balls were getting cracked, splitted, filled with water and they were sinking to the bottom of the aqua tanks, moving with the current at the deep and eventually blocking the circulation channels. 

We checked four different solution options after a significant amount of research and as the result of very detailed analyses and calculations, we have introduced them the ultimate solution for their need. They used the HexProtect Max R product which is hexagonal shaped, made of high quality virgin DOW HDPE material, empowered with thick and extremely durable wall designs and filled with strong and qualified polyurethane hard foam. The result was amazing. 

Their cost for covering per square meter of the surface of aqua tanks reduced %75. In fact, the unit cost of the hollow shade ball they used to use was less than the quarter of the price of the solution product we provided them. However; considering its zero maintenance and control cost, 8 times longer lifetime with quality functioning guaranteed and ability of preventing evaporation better, around %20 more… all combined; all staff of our customer were so happy with the saving numbers. They are still using the first batch of those modular surface covering system we provided.

ALL BUDGETS ARE EQUAL

What is the cost of all those happening behind the scene?

There are always some operations in every industrial sector which are in fact essential for running your business successfully, however; since they are not taking place right in front of the eyes and realized generally without being witnessed by the company staff; they could often evade the scrutinies and controls which are applied for the same level of suppliers and budgets meticulously. For example; pest control, lighting and office stationery etc.

As a result, your business could be being overcharged in many areas as behind the scene, from administration costs to maintenance expenses. There can be found many reasons for this, such as; not using specialist suppliers, opting to buy the inputs as expensive brands over functional non brands or just failing to shop around and not being able to see what products and prices are out there. 

Making a change and adopting new habits in these departments could be an easy way for management to save money, of course, with fewer loyalty issues or sacred cows involved.

Action:

Review your behind the scene spendings and make sure that your team keeps an eye on these costs and budgets just like they do for the front of scene costs to achieve the maximum savings across the whole business processes. 

Fallstudie:

Office stationery is expensive, yet, it’s generally left to the most junior employees to handle as the operations of buying mostly from the same suppliers that their predecessors used as well. 

A large scaled customer of ours in the packaging industry had used the same office stationery supplier for over twenty years period exclusively and had never compared their prices with competitors because they always thought they were already getting a better deal. 

We did a comparison and found a new supplier that saved for them 25.000 EUR in each year on paper, pens, markers, printing ink cartridges and all other stationery items.

PROVENANCE ISN’T ALWAYS THE BEST  - QUALITY AND VALUE ARE

While you are in the footsteps of your first known and mostly local suppliers and following & repeating your procurement experience with them, your business can lose sight of the true costs and genuine value of buying for related inputs.

Buying local generally seems to be a positive story for almost all input materials, however; there’s no automatic guarantee of quality or value. In addition; rigorous green audits can reveal that some locally sourced products are no more environmentally friendly than a competitive product from the other side of the country or the continent.

You should always ask for product details and visit producers to see for yourself what makes their product special. Conducting tests for various input material samples at the same regular production processes by hiding their brand names could be an objective method. This is called as, blind testing. It is not always possible for all inputs, but, whenever could be applicated, it is indeed an interesting, often surprising, but always the most trustworthy way for testing the samples of a new brand.

The blind testing method is important, because, some of the personnel in your company, especially those in the production and maintenance departments could be insistent for using the same brand raw materials, semi finished products or equipments and they might claim that; if the current input materials or equipments are replaced with new brands, there could be serious problems at the safety or productivity of the same regular operations. 

They might bring this kind of claims even before hearing about the name or characteristics of the competitive brand input materials or equipments. Interesting, isn’t it? As the result of the blind testing method, they have to be very careful and technically sure before putting forward any claims. This means, they have to be objective. 

We are always ive in our approach to local and provenance resources and we only choose the best quality and value for your business and for your customers. Buying locally to ensure reciprocity makes good business sense, however; what is the true cost of it for you? You could be paying significant amounts in inflated prices that you’ll never be able to save. Because; the savings of today that you missed, they are missed forever.

Action:

Don’t let buying local become an excuse for not getting the best quality and value; make local suppliers prove they are worth to cooperate with in all manners indeed. 

Case Study:

Around two dozens of medium sized manufacturer companies who are our customers used to supply their needs of resistance spot welding consumable materials as caps and electrodes from a few local suppliers in their own country. Some of these suppliers were producers and others were traders. The price and quality of their products were not satisfying our customers. However; the purchasing staff of our mentioned customers were still insisting to buy from the same local suppliers.

The buying operations were occuring often and for small amounts at each time. The unit prices were high and the product quality was technically problematic. There was happening a lot of loss at set up and production processes at the related machine lines. However; this subject was somehow not been taken care of as it should have been.

We introduced them all the resistance spot welding caps and electrodes of the one single direct manufacturer company which is a global leader and had not entered to their countries yet. All the samples were tested in the blind testing method in all customers. Amazing results were obtained. The quality of the new products was a lot better. In addition; considering the reduction of loss at the operational set up and production processes as well, the unit cost of the new products was %25 lower compared to their already in use materials. They all left their suppliers and all the needed amounts of them began to be supplied from our direct manufacturer supplier partner.

The new caps and electrodes were supplied without brand markings. However; only one of our customer companies had provided a negative feedback related to test results. It was claimed that the samples we provided did not work well. Then; we saw that, those samples were in fact never tested. They were mixed with their regularly supplied materials and they were not even taken out of their original package.

This operation provided annual savings to our customers from 20.000 USD to 125.000 USD, depending on their business scale and purchasing volume.

TEST TRADITIONS

Just like habits, there are good traditions and bad ones. Never examining the whats and the whys of every tradition and accepting their all practices directly in your business just means sinking in complacency. 

In many organisations, especially with higher than average staff circulation ones, accepted practices roll on from one employee to the next with no questions asked. “This is the way it’s done, because; we have always done it this way!”, is the continuously repeating opera at this kind of companies. 

However; doing things ‘this way’ could be costing your business a fortune and often is does so. Observe your staff and listen to their conversations and you’ll be amazed how many instances of accepted practices as traditions you’ll come across.

For example; even many professional industrial greenhouse plant production companies insist on buying and using the hand-made sticky traps to protect their crops against pest infestation. In fact; this material is a highly technical product and it is one of the vital requirements.

However; instead of supplying from a global leader manufacturer using; high technology, advanced machinery and internationally certificated environment friendly chemical ingredients which has a respected R&D background, a proven product quality and a high level of preferability; why are all these greenhouse plantation companies are insisting to buy these needed sticky traps from local, small scaled, non-qualified, unprofessional suppliers which provide insufficient quality products and even with higher price levels, considering the total cost of ownership?

Because; they have never needed to work on this subject. Very few of the employees would motivate themselves to bring some improvements and developments regarding the products and services supplied for the company they work for. What about the employees in the production facilities? Same situation is also valid for them. They never needed or they were never asked to improve and develop the processes related to the benefits which were supposed to be obtained through the input materials. And the list goes on and on like this.

Action:

Not all traditions are worth keeping. So; challenge them and encourage your staff to think about how gainings and savings could be made by doing things differently in all aspects.

Case Study:

A dozen of large scaled and professional industrial greenhouse plant production companies that grow vegetable seedlings were regularly supplying and using locally produced, non-qualified, non-functional yellow and blue sticky traps from a few unprofessional and uncertified producers in their city. Actually; we should say, “so called” traps. Because; these traps were functioning just like decoration in the greenhouses instead of catching harmfull insects.

After investigating the needed trap amounts and annual budgets that each of the subject greenhouse planting companies have for this case, we saw that; they were all spending less than their annual budget share for this class of material, but, they were not able to calculate and report the production loss that was occuring related to the harm that the target insects were causing because of the bad quality of the traps.

We found a respected and preferred producer of the subject class of traps which is a global leader and one of the biggest professional manufacturers and provided the samples to the mentioned greenhouse companies. Results were amazing. Quickly the mass scale applications were done. The cost of the new traps were considered to be almost nothing, compared to the plant protection levels achieved. Since then, they did not purchase any of those non-qualified traps from the mentioned unprofessional local suppliers again. 

The annual saving obtained through seedlings protection, even after reducing the total cost of our highly qualified traps, were between 45.000 EUR to 85.000 EUR, depending on the production volume of our subject customers.

ALWAYS REVIEW RENEWALS

Calling for competitive quotes continuously; keeps suppliers on their toes and your business on top of its game. 

With countless annual contracts across your business in every department, it’s easy to experience the situations like forget & let them roll-over or be automatically renewed without any reconsideration, especially, if you and your managers are pleased with the products and services supplied at present.

Stop this practice and instead, automatically call for competitive quotes on every input, from commodity raw materials to semi finished products and from component parts to industrial consumables and from spare parts to utilities and from transportation services to waste management supports and for many others... 

By doing this, you will achieve two things; firstly, you will obtain the best value contract and secondly, you will ensure better products and services procurement conditions; either from your current supplier who provides necessary efforts to remain qualified and competitive or from a new supplier who understands that you practice periodical reconsiderations and do your home-work well indeed.

Action:

Compose a comprehensive list of your annual contracts and reconsider them in detail with scheduled review dates and decide on the processes to follow for each. 

Case Study:

One of our new customers who is a large scaled producer in the chemicals industry had asked us to check and evaluate their company’s packaging materials supplying contracts, costs and conditions of procurement for large plastic bottles, carton boxes and wooden palettes that they use during their daily operations with a significant amount. 

We immediately found out that; their related procurement contracts had been rolling on without any reconsideration for several years as they were keeping their procurement from the same suppliers exclusively. We made our plan and put in the schedule and called for competitive quotes from our related contracted direct manufacturer supplier partners in the market and in addition; we applied the same operation to their current suppliers as well.

We made detailed negotiations and cost analyzes together with them all for each subject input material one by one. Their current suppliers of the mentioned input materials, they were, normally, all indeed keen to keep their businesses and they came up with the best quotes.

Through our negotiations that we have completed with the current suppliers of our customer, we realized a series of new contracts that provided savings more than 185.000 USD in the annual budget of our customer for this input material group.

Besides; considering the possible fresh new cooperations that we could build up based on the quotations that our supplier partners have provided which we  recommended for phasing them in, we could achieve the mentioned annual saving amount for our customer around 215.000 USD. However; our customer has preferred to continue with their current suppliers. Of course, we and our supplier partners respected the decision of our customer.

HOW TO RUN YOUR PURCHASING IN A NEW WAY

We are saving money for your business every day by our business unit of purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency.

Running a profitable business includes maintaining quality and controlling costs. Getting the best price in the market on goods and services helps you better manage costs and get more out of your budget. 

But, finding and making those deals requires a highly professional approach, a certain expertise and a serious experience in today’s complex buying markets. That’s just where our purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency partnership can help you, because; saving money for your business is our business.

At Lynx Global, we use our analysis capabilities, negotiating skills and our network of supplier partners to get better prices for all kinds of input materials, raw materials, semi finished products, consumable materials, equipments, spare parts and specialist services etc and related to the fact that we work for over 350 professional industrial production businesses who are our customers just like you; hereby, we have extra advantage points in the eyes of our direct manufacturer, qualified and competitive supplier partners to get the best possible prices.

We work together with over 75 sector leading and specialist supplier partners across many industries that with each of them we have strong relationships built in over long years and through countless cooperations. At the end; as Lynx Global, we believe in that, we can offer you the products and services you need, with more competitive prices and with better quality.

We work for you. The experience you will get through our business unit of purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency; it’s like having your own professional purchasing team.

Working with Lynx Global is like having your own professional purchasing team without the overheads. The prices we provide you, they are always the prices we get from our supplier partners directly. Because; 100% of the savings we negotiate with our supplier partners are passed to you directly. 

Operationally, cooperating with us in our business unit of purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency doesn’t change anything for your company. You continue to pay suppliers directly as always, but at better rates of more competitive price levels and certainly with the required quality levels your company needs. 

Our organization obtains its income from our customers and our supplier partners those both pay us for the successful and mutually profitable cooperations and projects we build up, manage, control, maintain, improve and develop continuously for them. Our income in our business unit of purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency is; the consultancy service fee that our customers and our supplier partners pay to our organization on monthly basis, based on official cooperation contracts.

A business partnership approach

Our business unit of purchasing and supply chain management consultancy & agency is a straightforward structure. Since the first day we’ve been in business, we have a competent team of agile and experienced industry experts. We like to begin with a review of your spendings. Then we take some time to get to know you and your team to understand how you work and what your objectives are.

The more you tell us about your business, the better we can help you. With our experience and expertise in the various industrial sectors, we understand the competitive environment and the challenges you face.  Our team tracks market trends and prices and can quickly benchmark how well your costs compete.

Having reviewed your expenditures, we’ll develop better buying strategies together with you to make sure that you’re sourcing the right products from the right suppliers with the right prices. With access to category leaders in almost every product and service classes, we can recommend your company qualified and competitive, direct manufacturer suppliers for all of your needs. This is entirely up to you. 

Remember!  Competition today; essentially, it has become an experience not across companies but across their supply chains. The c

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LYNX GLOBAL Group of Industries

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