Procurement cycle

Once the make or buy decision has been made, control of any purchasing activity follows a common series of activities, which are illustrated in Figure 6.2. There are four key processes in the procurement cycle for which you should prepare procedures ... 

Bulk and pooled procurement mechanisms can reduce drug prices substantially. The pooled procurement practices of the ECDS reduced unit costs for pharmaceuticals more than 50 per cent during its first procurement cycle (Huff-Rouselle and Burnett 1996). Also, the Delhi model used a pooled procurement system for hospitals and health facilities, through a CPA, saving nearly 30 per cent of annual drugs cost for the government and improving availability more than 80 per cent (Chaudhury et al. 2005). 

On the defensive side, service requirements were promulgated for a real-time detector for nerve agents in the field, shipboard detectors for Royal Navy vessels, prophylactics and therapy for nerve agent poisoning and a new respirator. The procurement cycle for some of these items was relatively quick, but for others, in particular the respirator, the process was one of continuous improvement reflecting advances in science and technology. However, to try to provide a succinct analysis of the first 20 post-war years of chemical weapon development in Britain is difficult mainly because many topics cannot be reported due to the non-disclosure of sensitive documents by the British government. 

F. 1 Typical route of a milk procurement cycle of organized dairy supply chain of GSDS... 

The planning and procurement cycle covers short- and longer-term requirements. The demand of the product and its components (biU of materials) are compared with the inventory and capacity and the replenishment requiranents are planned. Planners will decide what to buy and what to make. This make or buy decision process also applies to a service organization leading to either in-house or outsourced services. 

A push process conforms to a conventional supply chain management system going through typical stages in sequence. As shown in Figure 3.2, orders arrive at or after the demand cycle but always before the planning and procurement cycle and process is activated by a forecast or demand plan. Both raw and packaging materials are stored before production and products are manufactured to stock. The order fulfilment is achieved from the inventory of finished products. 

Ethan Allen makes customized furniture, such as sofas and chairs, for which customers select the fabric and finish. In this case, the arrival of a customer order triggers production of the product. The manufacturing cycle is thus part of the customer order fulfillment process in the customer order cycle. There are effectively only two cycles in the Ethan Allen supply chain for customized furniture (1) a customer order and manufacturing cycle and (2) a procurement cycle, as shown in Figure 1-7. 

All processes in the customer order and manufacturing cycle at Ethan Allen are classified as pull processes because they are initiated by customer order arrival. The company, however, does not place component orders in response to a customer order. Inventory is replenished in anticipation of customer demand. All processes in the procurement cycle for Ethan Allen are thus classified as push processes, because they are in response to a forecast. 

Military applications tend to be more dispersed than aerospace applications, however, often with relatively small potential volumes, plus a somewhat longer application development, approval, and procurement cycle. Fortunately, product life cycles tend to be relatively long. Both aerospace and military markets tend to be kinder to material suppliers than processors. Once a material specification is written around a particular product tightly enough, end users and your competitors alike will have difficulty justifying the time and cost required to qualify alternate sources. 

All capital equipment decisions should be based on the true or life cycle cost of the system. Life cycle cost includes all costs that will be incurred beginning with specification development before procurement to final decommissioning cost at the end of the compressor s useful life. In many cases, the only consideration is the actual procurement and installation cost of the compressor. While these costs are important, they represent less than 20 per cent of the life cycle cost of the compressor. 

Williams AG, Pell E, Webb J, Tribe E, Evans D, Moorhouse E, Watkiss P. Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Food Commodities Procured for UK Consumption through a Diversity of Supply Chains. Cranfield Cranfield University, 2008 78 p. 

Procured products are also commodities with a long life cycle the number of products is relatively small compared to the number of finished products. Customization is limited to standard raw materials. Raw materials considered are not perishable. 

Whilst the pigment has a favourable toxicity profile and a long history of application in sensitive applications such as cosmetics and in food-contact applications, in order to meet the requirements of discerning customers practice sustainable procurement and look for products with a beneficial life cycle analysis. This paper, therefore, outlines the results of a study which shows how a commitment to sustainable manufacture is an essential addition to the favourable toxicity profile. Areas for improvement are recognised and options for renewable energy resources are discussed. 

With the help of experts, the proliferation critical path is being formulated as logically connected if-then rules. The primary purpose of this formulation is to recognise and place information (e.g., export data) in the appropriate place(s) in the critical path structure. The critical path takes into account the possibility of shortening any of the paths to weaponisation at each of the fuel-cycle steps through external procurement (e.g., procurement of source material, UF, enriched uranium, etc.) and technical assistance. Nuclear activity profile for a given country is then obtained from a model presented in Fig. 11.8. 

As research progresses toward a commercial venture, there are points in time when the importance of the chemical substance, formulation or the fabricated item must he evaluated. Althou each company may have its own system for evaluation, more and more individuals become involved as the cycle progresses. Multi-disciplinary resources and talents are needed to deal with procurement, with the biological impact or potential hazards from the material, with the formulation or fabrication methodology that may he needed, and even with how it will he marketed and what segments of sociely will find it useful. Thus, industrial R D involves managing a broad range of resources — dollars, professional skills (people) and facilities (analytical equipment, pilot plants, etc.). 

---