Question

1. Identify someone involved in procurement at an organization and indicate there position and the nature of the business. Students need to email me for approval giving the person’s position as it relates to procurement as well as the nature of the business (it is fine to maintain confidentiality).

2. Briefly present the nature of business at the organization.

3. Indicate the structure & process of procurements.

4. Conduct the interview indicating the length of time for the interview.

5. Determine relevant aspects of procurement according to what you have learned in lectures and from the two textbooks. (You should address key topics particularly as they relate to Project Procurement. (Insure in your report the sections of the interview related to course procurement topics).

6. Provide a critique of what is positive and negative about the results of the interview. 7. Submit the project assignment according to the announcement in made in class.

8. The paper should be 3-5 pages (single spaced).

Answer 1

1) Mr. Jon Ritzman ,Procurement Specialist at XYZ Company specializing in manufacturing of Ophthalmic Lenses and optical products for different industries and academic institutions.

2) XYZ Company specializes in manufacturing of ophthalmic lenses made of both glass and fiber. It also specializes in the production of magnifying glasses and microscopes on order basis from various companies and academic institution from across the country.

3) The product faces of lot of competition from both giant companies and small establishments. It becomes highly important for the procurement team to select the vendors wisely to procure raw materials of top quality at the right price. Since some of the products are manufactured on the basis of demand and it might not be periodic or routine oriented, it must be made sure for the on time delivery of raw materials from the vendors as and when required on a priority basis. The search for a vendor does not end and it continues once in a while with market research to meet the demand of the clients and consumers. This whole procurement management works on the simple methodology of process, people and paperwork.

The procurement process is as follows:

a) The need for the materials is recognized as per the system and availability. It also depends upon the orders placed by the clients.

b) Now the purchase requisition is made and forwarded to the concerned purchasing department.

c) Followed by the approval of the budget for the sought materials for the production flow after being reviewed in parallel by the finance team of the organization.

d) The procurement team then sends the selected vendors requests to provide quotations on the needed materials, which is followed by negotiation and finalization of a contract.

e) The delivery time is decided and on receiving the goods a thorough quality check is done before raising any remark to the vendors.

f) The PO (purchase orders), PS (packaging slips) and VI (vendor invoices) are matched for payment approval as per the invoice.

g) This step is the final one where a history of the transaction is kept for future reference.

What are the other major aspects that a procurement specialist is responsible for?

Purchases made can be related to investments on several projects and capital expenditure. The work also include looking after tax & financial status to have an overview as to how much important it is to cut cost and generate revenue. It also requires to have a strong knowledge of the market in order to generate market intelligence report for own references at times to face challenges in terms of competition.

What are the software used for procurement in the organization?

SAP SRM as it incorporates innovative ways and methods to monitor the overall business process and also integrate the key suppliers within the system making them more effective with the whole procurement process of the organization.

(Interview time taken – 45 minutes)

To determine the important aspects of Project Procurement we need to understand significant attributes that define the process in totality.

It starts with the decision of planning the very source of procuring sough items, in other words internally or through external outsourcing. This will help to identify the overall cost, budget and its constraints.

The next aspect is involves a comparative analysis of vendors depending upon the quality, price and delivery time followed by the selection of the most effective from the list. In this process Project plan as designed by the manager is considered as a key document in managing resources and their allocations over the year.

Now that the vendors are selected and that they are made aware about the project requirements in details, it is important to create contract and generate documents that will identify the changes of the project with time. This will help to make the vendors aware about the same and will also help to administer the processes and manage relationships with the vendors. This also incorporates supply chain software and data because of the extensiveness of the process and for the maintenance of the quality standards.

The closing process in procurement is a lot about creating records and documents that can be used a reference in the future and can help in supporting project structure and procurement processes in a diverse situation.