In the last years in many companies the importance and role of procurement departments changed. The procurement departments are no longer only responsible for the ordering process. Today the procurement departments are very often involved in a tremendous number of decisions, amongst others the organization of the ordering processes for office equipment, the procurement of production material, for services connected with the products and services regarding additional capacities. Quite often the procurement department is asked to have a qualified supplier management and to support decisions e.g. the integation or outsourcing of tasks as well as the start of new series production. Changes in the organizational structure as well as in the processes inside and outside the company reflect the rising importance of the procurement. Now the final responsibility is very often on the level of the management.
An essential lever of the procurement are saving potentials on the level of products and services and/or regarding the optimization of processes between the company and the supplier. Regarding the competitiveness of a company besides the cost and time aspect the collaboration between a company and the supplier plays an important role. High quality products can only be achieved with components of a high quality. Innovations are easier realized by an early involvement of the supplier up to development partnerships where together or based on the initiative of the supplier new product development or the improvement of existing products and services takes place. Therefore in many companies the use of adequate methods and concepts starts in an early stage of the supply chain. There is a range of measures that can be taken by the procurement. One important precondition is to have an appropriate qualified staff.
Project topics – examples:
- Analysis of the procurement to identify and realize synergies and saving potentials
- Optimization of the organizational structure, of processes and interfaces of the procurement department
- Improvement of the supplier management
- Identification and realization of measures to reduce complexity
- Identification of required procurement skills and competencies and elaboration of a training plan
Are you currently working on these topics? Do you need any support? Please contact Dr. Monika Bauch – Management Consulting. I will be pleased to work with you!