Do you want to make your business successful? Do you want to make good profits in your business? Who doesn’t want to, right? Only hard work and dedication may not fetch you quick success in business.
Smart efforts and strategies are also required to attain quick success. One such strategy is procurement management. But do you know what procurement is?
What is procurement?
Sourcing, negotiating, and strategic selection of goods and services for an organization or business is known as procurement. People often think purchasing and procuring are the same? Though both of them are related to each other, they both have different responsibilities. Purchasing is the process of ordering goods and services.
Steps in the procurement process:
- Identification of required goods and services.
- Purchase requisition.
- Selection of suppliers.
- Negotiate price.
- Receive quotes from suppliers.
- Create a purchase order.
- Inspect the delivered goods.
- Conduct three-way matching.
- Approval of invoices.
- Record maintenance.
Types of procurements
There are various types of procurements associated with the vendor, some of them are:
- Single procurement
- Stock procurement
- Vendor managed inventory
- Just in time procurement
- Just in sequence procurement
- Just in sequence procurement
- Ship to line
Procurement management
There are several functions within procurement. Proper procurement management can be very beneficial to the organization. It saves money, time, and other resources for the organization. Smart procurement practices ensure the smooth running of business operations.
Steps for successful procurement management
1. Specification and planning
The goods and services required for the company should be identified. A detailed list of all the required goods should be made. Identifying and making a list helps in an organized flow of work. Listing out the required goods also helps in establishing the budget.
2. Identification and selection of the suppliers
There are numerous suppliers in the market. It is a difficult task to find the right vendor who can meet your organization’s requirements. This task requires a lot of research. Comparisons should be made between various vendors and then they should be shortlisted.
The selection of the vendor should be done by considering various aspects like – the quality of the material, budget, delivery time, safety of the goods, etc.
3. Negotiating and contracting with the suppliers
After you have shortlisted the vendors, you can negotiate your proposals based on your requirements. It is important to communicate your requirements with the suppliers. After you have made agreements with the vendors, you can establish contracts with them.
4. Control and delivery
After the contracts are made and the goods start getting delivered, quality checks should be done to them. The deliveries from the vendors should be carefully tracked regularly. The received products should be checked for damages and also they should tally with your order. It is also important to place orders considering the delivery time.
5. Measurement and analysis
This is the final stage of the process. All the delivered products should be analyzed in various categories like the quality of the product, delivery speed, safety, and overall efficiency.
A track of all the deliveries should be maintained. Keeping a track of the analysis will let you know the areas of improvement and profits. This will help in attaining success in future projects.
Importance of procurement management
Proper procurement management plays an important role in the growth of an organization.
- It helps with time management. It makes the work go faster and in an organized way. It also ensures that the deadlines are met.
- It enhances relationships with dealers and suppliers.
- Improved efficiency and quality of the work.
- Organized management systems will weed out errors with new suppliers or vendors.
- It helps in streamlined processes.
- It impacts the overall cost like material cost, transport, and team. Procurement management helps in reducing the overall expenditure and leads to large scale savings.
- It also saves various other resources of the organization.
Procurement is one of the crucial factors for a business. It deals with the selection and other aspects of required goods for the organization. Using smart strategies in procurement management can increase the profits of the business. It also includes the quality of products, relations with the vendors, contracts, and payments.
There are various digital procurement management ways that will boost the efficiency of the work. Low-cost computing and data storage systems are making it easy for the teams to handle purchases and maintain a record of them.
Procurement management is a helping hand for the growth of the organization. Good strategies can improve the sales and costs of the company. Smart and organized strategies will increase the profitability of the organization. Small businesses or startups should mainly focus on their procurements as they can save their expenditure and promote profits.
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