Question

Identify at least five goals of procurement, and for each goal explain clearly why it is important in procurement and how it may be achieved. Since you are preparing materials for training, your writing needs to be informative and as comprehensive as possible. (10Marks)

Answer 1

1. Supporting Operational Requirements: To support any requirements of business it is important to understand the business first so that everything is seamless and efficient. It is of utmost importance to buy the products and services from the right place, at the right price, with right specifications that meet the requirements, in the right quantity and for the right time of delivery to the right user.
2. Efficient and Effective Management of Procurement Process and Supply Base: identification of right opportunities and management of internal operations is important to manage the procurement process and suppy base effeciently and effectively. This can be done by evaluating and selecting suppliers ethically, reviewing the scope of work and specifications, managing staff, developing and maintaining the policies, leveraging technologies, defining strategies and providing growth opportunities and training to employees
3. Developing Inter-Departmental Relationships: It is important to liaise with all the teams of the organization to gather requirements and understand them in and out. The procurement team should proactively communicate with teams to develop relationships with all the departments of the organization
4. Support Organizational Goals: Although each department works towards the goal of organization but procurement department plays a crucial role in this by enabling other departments to work towards the goal. This is done through monitoring the supply market trends and analyzing the impacts, identifying critical resources and global suppliers, and maintaining high quality.
5. Enhancing Competitive Advantage: Many organizations' fate is dependent on the the supply chain and procurement department as this can either make a huge dent in the profits or enable the organization to reach last mile and get the best deals. Some of the ways to enhance competitive advantage through procurement department is through adoption of technology, ease of communication, maintaing excellent relationships with diverse stakeholders