Main topics of study:

Purchasing:

• Purchasing Defined
• Scope of Purchasing
• Creating Profit in a Business
• Processes Examined
• Place of Purchasing
• Financial Impact of Functions
• Purchasing as a Strategic Process
• Purchasing Strategy & Strategic Purchasing

Building a Purchasing Strategy:

• Contribution & Influence
• Purchasing & Audit Framework
• Organisation
• Relationships
• Systems
• Staffing & Training
• Enabling Foundation

Strategic Purchasing - Understanding & Influencing the Supply Market:

• Current Problems
• Upstream & Downstream Management
• Supply Planning
• Special Requirements Identification
• Contract Strategy
• Supplier Selection
• Contract Finalisation

Understanding the Basics of Purchasing:

• Anyone Can Buy
• Price & Cost
• Price & Volume
• Buyer Power Increases with Size of Organisation
• Price Lists
• Competitive Bidding
• Negotiation & Service/Quality
• Sealed Bidding & Security
• Multiple Sourcing
• Price Formulae
• Buyer Power & Monopoly
• Payment

Supply Positioning:

• Pareto Analysis
• Setting Up a Supply Positioning Analysis
• Supply-Market Segmentation
• Purchasing Goals
• Purchasing Action Scenarios
• Other Applications
• Conglomerates’ Purchasing

Supplier Preferences:

• Key Account Management
• Customer Segmentation by Suppliers
• Matching Supply Positioning with Customer Segmentation

Vulnerability Management:

• Identifying Vulnerabilities
• Assessing the Risk
• Managing the Risk
• Vulnerability Analysis
• Cost Reduction
• Other Issues

Influencing the Supply Market:

• Procurement Marketing
• Reverse Marketing
• Affirmative Vendor Improvement

Buyer-Supplier Interface:

• Specific Requirements Identification
• Getting Early Involvement
• Supplier-Buyer Conditioning
• Conditioning the Buyer
• Keeping the Seller Selling
• Conditioning the Seller

Options for Supplier Relationships:

• Make v Buy
• Market Analysis
• Supplier Relationships
• Changes in Supply Market
• Buyers Response to Changing Market
• Dependency Dilemma
• Supply Market Orientated Role for Purchasing
• Assessing Competitive Advantage

Partnership Sourcing:

• Definition
• Why Develop Partnership Sourcing?
• Declared Partnership Goals
• Key Issues

Monopolies & Cartels

• Monopolies
• Determining the Extent of the Supply Monopoly
• Strategies to Redress the Balance
• Cartels

Organising for Impact:

• Parking Wheel
• External Environment
• Role
• Relationships
• Systems & Structures
• Resources

Measurement, Audit & Benchmarking:

• Why Measure?
• Operational or Strategic
• Use of Indicators
• Overall Indicators
• Indicators Related to Supply Positioning
• Limitations of Indicators
• Management by Objectives
• Measurement Summary
• Benchmarking

Reading List

Main Text:

Profitable Purchasing Strategies - Steele & Court (McGraw Hill)