SOURCING EXCELLENCE
DECISION ARCHITECTURE
Procurement technology keeps getting better at moving information and executing actions.
The harder problem is deciding what the system should optimize for.
A sourcing decision can involve cost, capacity, risk, concentration, service, working capital and flexibility at the same time. Those objectives can conflict.
Decision architecture is the work of making those objectives, constraints and tradeoffs explicit before the organization commits to an answer.
Technology can improve the analysis. Workflow can improve coordination. Neither defines what better means.
The quality of the decision still depends on how the problem is framed.