Title: George Weston Foods Procurement
1George Weston Foods Procurement
- How does Gemstones work?
- What does it get you?
2The process as a picture
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Objective Apply the Gemstones from a given
conference to our business
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1) Kick Off
Match original objectives and action planning
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2) Session planning and attendance
3) Consolidation
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4) Output
3Objectives of the Gemstones Pack
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- The objectives of the Gemstones Pack are
- To provide a structured way of achieving the best
possible outcome from a team participation to a
Conference/learning event. - To offer an effective procedure to share, compare
and consolidate learnings. - A method to keep the information most relevant to
our business in a consistent and useable format. - By using the Gemstones pack, the team does not
only come out of a conference with personal
knowledge, but also has a way to absorb the best
ideas from their colleagues. - Helps find the special few elements in each
speakers presentation, and then distil from that
the 'gems' that can help our procurement team and
help our company.
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4Stage 1 Kick Off
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- Four weeks prior to the conference, the following
tasks are organised - Choose which team members are going to be
attending the conference (who didnt go last
year? Are there any new starters?) - Amongst these team members, nomination of a team
coordinator as a first point of contact for all
team members. - The team coordinator will then be responsible for
information circulation amongst all team members,
and to make sure that everyone has understood
what is expected from the attendance to this
conference and how the Gemstones process works.
- Circulate all published material about the event
to the participants. - The event is also added to the usual Teambrief
agenda for preliminary discussions.
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5Stage 2 Session Planning and attendance
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- The second part of the Gemstones process covers
the last step of the pre-conference organisation
- For clarity, and to help with the organisation
process, a master plan is created. - It includes the contact details and positions of
all participants to the conference. - It shows a list of all seminars, plenary
sessions, workshops etc and assigns at least 1
participant to each session (multiple are OK). - A session owner is also nominated for each
session. The role of the session owner at this
stage is to be the central point of contact for
this particular session for others who might be
attending the same session.
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To see an example, click here ?
6Stage 2 Session Planning and attendance
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- The Gemstones template is for the team to take
notes in a uniform way. It is circulated to the
team prior to the conference, in order for the
participants to have the time to familiarise
themselves with the template and get a better
understanding of what they need to get out of the
conference. - Using a common template also makes it easier to
consolidate the information and put together a
summary of each session. - A breakfast team meeting is held before session
1/ day 1. Here everyone sees what is covered by
who and any loose ends are seen to.
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To see an example, click here ?
7Stage 3 Consolidation
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- After the conference, the consolidation process
starts, which encompasses the following - A team meeting after the last session on the last
day reinforces whats next? and by when. - Participants send completed soft copies of their
notes (using the Gemstones template provided) to
the relevant session owners. - The Session owners then compile the common
Gemstone documents relating to their session. - The session owners confirm that the notes for all
sessions from all participants are complete, and
produce one consolidated Gemstones document on
their session. - The session owners send their consolidation to
the team coordinator. - The team coordinator then creates a Gemstones
pack - For example, for GWF, after the 4th CIPSA
conference, in total, 158 ideas were consolidated
across 24 sessions.
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8Stage 4 Output
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- The last step of the process is to prioritise the
consolidated list down to the few Gemstones (the
short list) that we want and are in position to
use in the business, and to place a rank in their
priority - The team coordinator presents a selection of
potential Gemstones at the GWF Procurement
Workshop. The presentation is an important step,
as only a part of the whole procurement team
attended the Conference. The team members who did
not attend must get a clear understanding of the
potential Gemstones through the presentation in
order to make an informed decision. - A segmentation tool (see example below) is used
to prioritise the ideas presented to the ones
that will be the easiest to implement and/or will
have the strongest impact. It also helps us
choose the Quick Wins. - The number of Gemstones that the team needs to
choose is set at 12. If it really MUST be more
than 12 because the team cannot rule out some
very powerful ideas, then this figure can be
revised. - The procurement team discuss the priorities of
the potential Gemstones during the GWF annual
Procurement Workshop, and segment the ideas
between the do now/do later. This confirms the
quick wins. - The output matches the original objectives.
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A prioritisation tool is used during this part of
the process. To see an example, click here ?
9Conclusion What makes this work?
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- The Gemstones process has an owner (with a
helper). - The quality of the result is part of the owners
annual objectives, and his/her performance
leading the process will be appraised. - The Gemstones process is structured and uses
simple tools and templates. - Everybody contributed to / created the findings
there is an ownership component to the outcome. - The prioritisation process takes from too many
ideas to find the few Gemstones. - The fact that it generates actions gives
credibility to the Gemstones process.
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