MRO Best Practices: Order it at purchasing.com

PURCHASING Magazine has published MRO Purchasing Best Practices .

This new reference guide, compiled by Susan Avery, senior editor of PURCHASING, is a benchmarking tool that's a must-read for buyers, filled with interviews of MRO buyers who have deployed sourcing strategies considered

The book is divided into seven sections.

Part I examines in-dustrial distribution trends. Stories based on surveys of readers delve into purchasing's satisfaction—or dissatisfaction—with distributor suppliers. Others look at purchasing's relationship with distribution.

Building on that foundation, Part II focuses on the buyer/supplier relationship from purchasing's point of view. MRO buyers at Siemens, Saturn, Harley-Davidson, Boeing and Deere share strategies for purchasing MRO goods and services.

Part III dishes up more meat-and- potatoes stories featuring MRO buyers at Rexam Beverage Can North America, Schneider Electric, NOVA Chemical, Timken, the U.S. Postal Service and Cessna Aircraft (recipient of PURCHASING's Medal of Professional Excellence for 2003).

Integrated supply management is the topic of Part IV. Stories look at successful integrated supply arrangements at Tropicana, Goodrich, Har-ley-Davidson and GM.

Part V has detailed examples of how Sony, Whirlpool, Boeing, Sun, Ashland, Phillips and GE use the Internet to buy maintenance items, and how e-procurement helps improve efficiency and manage costs.

Part VI looks at the use of purchasing cards, while Part VII profiles MRO purchasing professionals and introduces the magazine's recent All-Star MRO Buy Teams. Members hail from world-class purchasing operations at such companies as Xerox, Imperial Chemical Industries, Waste Management and Lockheed Martin.