Next Level Purchasing recently released their 2008 Purchasing & Supply Management Career & Skills Report which not only included a wealth of statistics on supply management today, but also included solid evidence that the profession is evolving into a more strategic one.
One of the questions that the survey asked was If you’ve been in purchasing for more than five years, what responsibilities do you have today that you didn’t have five years ago? The three most common answers were:
- Manage other purchasers
- Negotiate with suppliers
- Supplier / Vendor Development and Management
As Charles Dominick notes, this indicates that there has been a significant change in the way organizations view their suppliers. No longer are suppliers merely insignificant entities to fulfill needs – they are now strategic partners as supplier performance can greatly impact an organization’s operational efficiency, cost structure, and ability to serve its own customers. Having a good supply base provides an organization with a competitive advantage.
Furthermore, strategic organizations can reap great benefits from supplier relationships through the exchange of ideas, collaboration that improves product and service offerings, and the identification of common goals that lead to shared rewards. However, this requires that buyers work closely with the supplier to improve the supplier’s capabilities (development) and put systems and procedures in place to measure, communicate, and improve the supplier’s performance (measurement).
In addition, the fact that more professionals are now managing other professionals indicates that several trends have started to take hold in profession across the industry:
- purchasing is moving from de-centralized to centralized or center-led
- the value of purchasing and supply management is being recognized by senior management, who are creating strategic supply management departments where none existed before
- the number of jobs, especially on the strategic side, is increasing
This is all good news. Let’s just hope these professionals are given access to state of the art e-Sourcing tools to help them do their jobs efficiently and productively!
