The business environment has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with businesses demanding the best price for the services and supplies that they receive. This does not simply mean driving prices down, however, as organisations are moving away from traditional transaction-based supply chains where the cheapest product is deemed the best on offer. Instead, there is a move to value-added procurement options, with supply chain professionals seeking the best value for money to meet their market potential.
To add value to this process, procurement professionals should focus on collaboration and analyse relevant data to make the most informed business decisions. The result of this transformation should be to create a value-based procurement department that benefits both internal and external customers, suppliers and vendors.
- Get the right procurement talent
Organisations should make sure that they recruit the best talent to help all the other departments to assess and prioritise their supply chain requirements – this will drive operational change. Mangers responsibly for hiring should look for effective training and development programmes that focus on the bigger supply chain picture. This will teach procurement professionals to stop focusing on small and restricted goals and will encourage them to look at how the supply chain can improve the operations of the entire organisation.
- Join the digitisation transformation
We all know that the next big thing for procurement professionals is digital supply chain management. Digitisation helps organisations to be more competitive and manage the market fluctuations more efficiently and effectively. Using the power of the cloud, Big Data, IoT, blockchain technology and crowdsourcing, organisations can optimise their processes and create a competitive and global-oriented supply chain.
Thankfully, the shift to a digital supply chain is possible through training and professional development schemes. Routinely undertaking this in your organisation will enable procurement professionals to gain the most detailed, comprehensive and up-to-date insights.
- Create a collaborative culture
Whether collaboration is with internal or external stakeholders, it will prove extremely beneficial for any organisation. It will help to maintain lower inventory levels, ensure higher inventory turnover, reduce the level of out of stock items, reduce the cost of warehousing and transportation and have shorter lead times. In turn, this will help organisations to meet customer demand, ensure supplier performance and make strategic decisions more quickly.
Since the needs of your customers are constantly changing and technology is improving at a rapid pace, creating a value-oriented supply chain can be a challenge. However, when organisations focus on building procurement talent and implementing technological solutions to ease the rigours of procurement, it should improve the customer’s experience and lead to a competitive advantage for your organisation.
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