Roles of Information Technology in Purchasing

The main elements of a supply chain include purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration. The supply chain begins with purchasing. Purchasing managers or buyers are typically responsible for determining which products their company will sell, sourcing product suppliers and vendors, and procuring products from vendors at prices and terms that meets profitability goals.

The major role of the procurement department is to get the products in the door, with little concern for price, to satisfy the needs of production and engineering. There are no basic systems in place to control materials once they arrive. The expediter often typed up purchase orders for rush items, and in other cases, picked up the items and told the supplier they would receive an order confirmation from the Blozis Company supply department. Once returning to Blozis, and distracted by other issues he would forget to ask supply for a confirming order. This caused distress for the supply department clerks, as they would need to process invoices for which it had no corresponding orders. Purchase orders were often made up to match invoices if the material had obviously been received from the supplier, after the fact.

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 7, Number 5, 2002, pp. 271 – 282;

Supply chain management is a practice that involves the planning, supervision, and implementation of strategies and controls to direct the movement of goods and services provided to customers. The intent of this essay is to incorporate a synopsis of existing literature and to provide the reader with a general understanding of how supply chain management correlates with the organizational design and structure of modern firms. The essay comprehensively reviews the components of supply chain management and their integration with functional areas within an organization. The information presented in this essay

The present organizational chart of the SC Department in the company includes two buyers, one material control clerk, one expeditor and two shipper/receivers. This structure was functional to the previous strategy because there was a strong focus on the purchasing function. We believe that in order to maximize the SC Department resources in accordance with the new structure the positions and functions of the people with the SC Department will have to be adapted to strengthen the inventory management function of the company. There company could benefit from having one person responsible for forecasting demand. Processes should be reviewed to ensure that the SC Department has sufficient access to information in order to achieve this task. Re-buying will also be of utmost importance now in order to ensure that there is always sufficient inventory to maintain production going.

Be sure to read the entire lab protocol. Then, complete the following activities and questions that follow. Please format your final document

The procurement section of Target’s supply chain is an essential part of how it replicate costs to customer requirements. The overall affiliation between customer fulfillment and the supply chain are closely linked to products that are designated based on benchmarks that have been appropriately matched to target costing structured with market criticism and feedback provided. When focusing on purchasing products to sell to customers, the organization selects and processes the best option that best matches Target’s

W.C. Benton, J. (2010). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

2. Handling purchase orders, receipt of purchased materials, storage of raw materials

Within the content of the evolution of Purchasing & Supply Mgt. From a transaction based (i.e. clerical/mechanical) function to one that is strategic based (i.e. proactive/world class) in the private sector, how has the emergence of a strategic focus affected the propagation & implementation of the 5 Major Developments (as stated in the textbook) in the area of Purchasing and Supply Management? In addition, how has this strategic focus influenced the interaction & collaboration of Purchasing & Supply Mgt, with other departments of the organization (e. g. Finance, Legal, Human Resources, Marketing, Manufacturing, Logistics,

Purchasing-Information gained from planning stage used to purchase raw material for products and packaging from supplier.

By e procurement platform we can analyse the data of the vendors and other users .This way we can develop new system to better serve them. For example in Tata steel seeing the different buying pattern of the foreign and domestic vendors they introduced to site different site for each one.

For a purchasing operation to be effective it must adhere to some key points. A purchasing operation must identify the requirements of the user, effectively and efficiently evaluate the needs of the user, and identify suppliers that will meet the needs of the use. They must also develop agreements with those suppliers, develop ordering mechanism with the suppliers and ensure payment occurs promptly and determine that the need of the user was met.

The purchasing and supply function is strategically vital in laying the foundation for an organization to acquire a competitive advantage. I have taken this stance following thorough literature reviews and taking into consideration statements that are relative to pertinent techniques, tools, and models. In addition, it has been taken into consideration with a focus on current debates and thinking in the strategic supply and purchasing field. The benefits of efficient supply and purchasing were realized by recent organizations who have acknowledged its strategic importance. Traditional purchasing models were based on tactical processes; with exclusive focus on clerical functions. Nevertheless, purchasing and supply is viewed as a function playing a vital role in attaining strategic organizational objectives for reasons I will continue to clarify (Davis & Spekman, 2010).

The term e-procurement gained popularity around the year 2000. Emergence of the two competitors Ariba and Commerce One, companies that specialized in the support of electronic procurement for MRO products, changed the way indirect MRO spend used to be looked upon. Introduction of internet-based procurement applications prompted a change from a centrally organized procurement (central buying) department to ‘desktop procurement’ environment, where the employee in need of a product would initiate the purchase transaction electronically. With these two trends, ‘decentralized purchasing’ and ‘multi-vendor catalogues’, the conduit toward electronic support of the MRO buying process was paved. Thus, over the period, spend analysts have started observing carefully, to increase spend under management and implement better control over tail spend in order to reduce the amount of fulfilling formalities and time consumed in procuring these products.