Interesting article on should cost modelling by Jonathan O'Brien

Interesting article on should-cost modelling written by Jonathan O'Brien:

http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestarticles/should-cost-modelling/

His emphasize on the power balance and the market situation is vert important! Although a very interesting piece of thought leadership, the aim is solely focused on adversarial relationships with suppliers, meanwhile fully ignoring the cooperative way in should cost modelling.
In a cooperative way, buyers can get access to the factory and obtain all necessary information. Of course suppliers will in first instance be hesitant to disclose this information and some they will continue always to be hesitant. But he speaks about overcoming culture barriers, which, I believe, is also relevant for exchanging these types of sensitive information. Although very difficult, it is possible when taking certain determinants for a good information exchange into account (for more information on this topic see my Master Thesis, 2010:  The vertical information exchange process : A multiple case study to the determinants of the 'Total Inter-firm Profitability'-information exchange process between buyers and suppliers