Purchasing Management System
An effective purchasing management system is the key to the success of an organization.
Purchasing management is much more than the functional area of a business that purchases inventory. Purchasing management is a strategic function within an organization. From sourcing quality products to managing vendors and controlling costs to ensuring the right amount of sold inventory is available to customers, purchasing management is key to the success of an inventory-centric organization.
As with most strategic organizational processes, purchasing management affects all areas of a company and requires people, systems, technology and discipline. In turn, a purchasing management system can make a difference in profitability. Controlled cost of goods and the right products in stock in the right quantities is a key factor in achieving customer satisfaction and organizational growth.
Managing the Procurement Process
Purchasing management has become more complex in the last decade and with only more challenges to come, the day of managing vendors and making purchases with spreadsheets and sticky notes is no longer an option.
Effective procurement is much more than finding a supplier and issuing a purchase order: it is a process that provides an organization with great value not only from a monetary point of view, but also by obtaining products of the highest quality and high demand at the lowest cost. You can make sure those products are in stock and available to customers when needed.
Although each company’s specific sourcing and purchasing activities are different, most companies that have implemented a purchasing process are responsible for improving forecasts, setting stock levels, managing and controlling purchasing operations, monitoring performance of suppliers and more, and they do it to identify savings opportunities.
Without advanced purchasing tools integrated with inventory management and sales functions, many of these activities would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform.
By leveraging technology, many processes and processes can be automated or managed with activity alerts and reminders and improve collaboration and visibility across the enterprise.
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Which features are most important in procurement management system?
Procurement management addresses the need for products for the business, so it is a good starting point to determine the functions needed in a procurement solution.
Need
For each product, the questions related to the requirements (how much to order and the right features are the specifications, colors and quality required) must be answered in order to purchase correctly.
Take those questions and multiply those for each product, which equates to miles for some companies, and the task can be overwhelming. Forecasting and trend analysis enable better purchasing decisions that can take into account trends, seasonality, promotions, and changing marketing conditions.
Cost
There are several factors that need to be considered in addition to the price the seller is offering. Knowing the real cost or access cost of a product is important for vendor evaluation. Additionally, tracking and aggregating spend across the organization can uncover opportunities to take advantage of volume discounts with vendors.
Vendor performance
The insights gained through supplier performance analysis will enable better planning, improve decision making and result in a more profitable supplier management process.
Easy access to complete supplier historical data, including supplier published prices, final costs paid, and delivery times, enables continuous evaluation and setting of new supplier expectations.
Multi-currency
As global sourcing continues to grow in popularity, the ability to trade in multiple currencies to buy (and sell) internationally is a must.
The cost of doing business is different in every country and the solution must support both your multinational pricing strategy and multi-currency conversion.
Buying
When stock levels reach a predetermined minimum amount, the responsible purchasing manager should be alerted that a new order is needed.
Creation of purchase orders, whether new or new, should be quick and easy and include automated approval routing, which helps reduce unauthorized purchases.
In addition, the ability to manage shipped direct orders and special orders conveniently but separately maintains accurate inventory volume and forecasting.
Steps to better purchasing management System
In this steps you will learn, How purchasing management System (PMS) can help your business gain control of purchasing activities, and in the process, save money & improve customer satisfaction.
Read Also: What is Quality Management System (QMS)
Step – 1. Determine how & where spending has occurred
Where does all the money go? Regardless of company size, the ability to access, organize, and analyze spend data is a critical component of successfully managing a supply chain.
By tracking and analyzing how and where spending is occurring, you’ll find savings opportunities and gain a better understanding of what’s being bought, what’s being sold, and how your current vendors are performing.
Purchasing management system (PMS) provides easy access to supplier or supplier type information such as the quantity and value of inventory on hand, sales figures, sales revenue numbers, cost of goods sold, turnover rate and more.
Step – 2. Know your vendors & set supplier expectations
Looking back is one of the best places to develop supplier expectations and selection criteria.
In the past, across all of your products, how have your suppliers performed? How many times have they delivered on time? How responsive were they to your requests? Does the cost paid affect the seller’s credibility?
PMS has the tools to determine what past results were acceptable if your current vendors are really the best choice, and to develop vendor expectation criteria for evaluating suppliers going forward.
Step – 3. Understand the true product cost
Many fees and charges can occur in the supply chain, such as duties, taxes, VAT, government fees, customs duties, freight, and insurance that, when added to the purchase price of a product, can cause a significant change in the actual cost of the product.
PMS allows businesses to automatically or manually capture these additional charges, whether the costs are known at the time of receipt of the goods, or sometime after.
Step – 4. Make better decisions to buying
Buying the right inventory in the right quantity at the right time keeps products in demand on the shelf and customers happy.
Knowing how to accomplish this can be a bit more difficult. Unless you have a purchase management system.
PMS trend analysis and inventory forecasting tools simplify the process of making sure you have enough inventory to fulfill a sale when a sale occurs, but not too much, which can vary based on trends and seasonality..
Step – 5. Free-up cash by recognizing obsolete or overstocked inventory
There are many reasons why businesses end up with too much inventory or products that don’t sell, overbuying out of fear of potential lost sales. Getting a deal from a vendor that incentivizes a large order because of customer demand or inability to predict the weather. Lack of or compliance with inventory control and management procedures.
PMS tools help identify obsolete, slow-moving, and obsolete products that can be turned into high-yield inventory, redirected for other business needs, or turned into cash.
Step – 6. Receive alerts for low stock
How many times have you lost a sale due to lack of stock of a product? In addition to the lost sales revenue and the cost of reaching the customer in the first place, the customer is now looking for the product their competitor needs.
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And what if the next time it’s time to shop, they call them instead of you? Conditional PMS, low stock, and recommended reorder alerts let you know when a predetermined stock level is reached and more products need to be reordered out of stock is a thing of the past.
Step – 7. Streamline the purchasing process
Using technology to streamline purchases saves time, has controls that can reduce overspending, and allows resources to work on more strategic tasks.
From simplifying requirements creation, requesting quotes, and receiving shipments to automating purchase orders, routing, and approvals, it saves time and increases accuracy throughout the procurement process.
Step – 8. Achieve spend control and policy compliance
You’ll see this called for everything from counterfeit purchases to mind-blowing spending, but avoiding unauthorized purchases can significantly reduce the amount of obsolete inventory in a warehouse and save money.
The purchasing management system allows the creation of purchase orders based on pre-established reorder policies and procedures using preferred vendors for systematic control.
Once a purchase order is created, managers can be alerted that a purchase order is pending review.
Step – 9. Know when it’s time to give a call to the vendor
Sometimes even sellers you’ve trusted for years struggle to deliver on time. Unfortunately, those delays can mean lost sales and unfortunate customers for you.
Purchase management system, purchase orders are automatically tracked with expected delivery dates and a shipment overdue alert notifies you if a shipment is not received on time.
Step – 10. Measure purchasing performance
The purchasing management system plays an important role in the profitability and success of a business. Keeping costs low and ensuring deliveries are made on time are directly related to being able to set competitive prices and keeping customers happy.
Purchasing management system dashboards monitor purchasing performance as part of daily business operations, ensuring activities are on track and effective.
From summary to description, purchasing key performance indicators are available in real time, providing information at a glance and allowing problems to be identified and resolved quickly. For more topics continue visit to www.educlicker.in.
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