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Sandia Labs tops DOE facilities in supply chain savings
An aerial view of part of Sandia鈥檚 main campus on Kirtland Air Force Base in sa国际传媒官网网页入口. Sandia said it has saved more than $400 million in supply chain costs across federal energy sites in the U.S.
Sandia National Laboratories has reduced supply chain costs more than any other U.S. Department of Energy site over the past 12 years.
Totaling $439 million in savings, Sandia is responsible for nearly a quarter of the $2 billion in cost reductions from DOE鈥檚 Supply Chain Management Center since 2013 鈥 when Sandia joined the program 鈥 according to a May news release from the lab.
The cost savings align with President Trump鈥檚 recent goals to cut back on spending though the DOE work has spanned multiple administrations.
And, it鈥檚 an especially important time to save money amid economic uncertainty happening on a federal level, caused by global tariffs the Trump administration has threatened, implemented or plans to implement, said local trade expert Jerry Pacheco.
鈥淥ne of the hardest jobs in the world right now would have to be supply chain manager and trying to save money here and there, because you could be subject to tariffs, either exporting your goods or importing to the United States,鈥 said Pacheco, executive director of the Border Industrial Association.
Sandia鈥檚 savings are a result of establishing purchase agreements that multiple DOE sites can share, according to Sandia鈥檚 news release. There are 117 contractor agreements across the entire Supply Chain Management Center.
鈥淐ollaboration is key,鈥 said Scott Bissen, senior director of the DOE鈥檚 Supply Chain Management Center, in a statement. 鈥淭his achievement is proof of what happens when prime contractors work together for the benefit of the enterprise.鈥
University of New Mexico Economics Professor Mat铆as Fontenla agreed that a centralized supply chain has clear benefits, adding that it comes with consistency and less paperwork on top of savings.
鈥淎s long as it allows for some flexibility to deal with specific issues, the transparency and cost efficiencies win out,鈥 he said.
Government supply chains tend to be centralized, according to Julie Niederhoff, associate professor of supply chain management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
鈥淒ecisions are made for a larger geographic area or across several locations or product lines,鈥 she said. 鈥淲ith this bigger perspective, a company can get volume discounts and make sure products and services are price competitive, at a consistent quality and generally consistent across the network.鈥
Pacheco said every company involved in global supply chains needs to think about their business positions, applauding how Sandia is doing it.
鈥淭his is the kind of innovative thinking I think we need right now to mitigate risk and to bring a little more certainty to industry,鈥 he said.