Strategic Sourcing and Procurement - Best Practices

Shunmugham PANDIAN (Ph.D)
International Logistics and Supply Chain Management Unit
University of Plymouth, United Kingdom

The contemporary business landscape is characterized by dynamism, unpredictability and complexity. Such a business landscape exerts enormous pressure on organisations to streamline their business processes to reduce the cost and the quality of their outputs. In this regard, the workshop focuses on the role of sourcing and purchasing that have transformed from transactional to strategic function. Shortening product life cycles coupled with product proliferation and lead-time reduction call for more proactive approach to the sourcing strategy in many organisations. As sourcing and procurement constitute a big part of spend management in organisations, the workshop will identify the importance of strategic sourcing to exploit the suppliers’ competitive advantage. Build a long-term relationship with suppliers is essential to develop a competitive synergy to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Issues such as sourcing planning, supplier selection, supplier scoring and evaluation, and performance metrics will be discussed. Procurement categorization for effective procurement process in organisations will also be looked at to identify the need for e-Marketplace for indirect procurement practices. Also best sourcing and procurement practices that are adopted by the leading organisations would also be discussed in this workshop. While learning from best procurement practices are relevant for organisations to develop an effective procurement strategy, the workshop will also look at the importance of developing the sourcing and procurement strategies organically.