Question

Question 1

1. Discuss ten contributions that ICT continues to make to the procurement function
2. Explain the following IT systems used by the procurement or supply chain function ;

1. ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’
2. ‘Materials Requirement Planning’
3. ‘Purchase to Pay (P2P)’

Question 2

Compare five characteristics of manufacturing sector organisations with those of retail sector organisations

Answer 1

1. ICT refers to Information Communication and Technology. It helps the companies to use information technology in various operations of the business. ICT also plays a vital role in the procurement function of the enterprise. It helps the company to track the progress of purchases. It helps them to track the necessary data. It helps the company to maintain the amount of inventory. It tracks the requirements of the inventory is present, and future. It also helps in automatic supply and procurement. It helps to facilitate the corporate buying process. It also eases the flow of products and services. It helps the facilitation of the distribution and supply chain processes. Lastly, it also helps with auctions and other processes.

i. Enterprise Resource Planning: It is an integrated method of using business applications appropriately. It provides a better end to end connection between all the processes such as manufacturing and distribution. For example, Customer Relationship Management ii. Material Requirement Planning: It is a method that is efficiently calculating the materials and components that the company requires for a manufacturing process. It identifies the inventory and takes further steps to calculate the exact requirements.

iii. Purchase to pay: It is a process that connects the procurement process to the payment process. Naturally, it involves all the processes from purchasing to the payment, including sales, manufacturing, finance, and resource analysis.

2. The manufacturing process includes the making of the product using all the resources. The retailers only sell the product to the end consumer. The manufacturer makes the goods in a large quantity. On the other hand, retailers have fewer goods. The former uses raw materials, and the latter only deals with final goods. The manufacturer has high inventory costs than the retailer. Moreover, manufacturing is B2B (Business to Business), and the retailing is B2C (Business to Consumer).