Sole sourcing security
Alastair Henman argues that government and commercial buyers of critical national infrastructure protection equipment increasingly want to single-source their procurement to improve integration, drive up standards and reduce costs
The trend towards sole sourcing was established long ago, built on a drive for lower costs, quicker lead times and accelerated innovation. It began more than 30 years ago in the car industry, as vehicle makers the world over adopted the Japanese approach of building supplier keiretsu: close-knit networks of vendors that continuously learn, improve and prosper along with the organisation they are supplying. In a programme often known . . .
