(BUS06128) Logistics and supply chain management assignment on Purchasing and Procurement function in UnitedRetail

Question

Task: In this logistics and supply chain management assignment you are asked to choose an organisation. You will need to be able to describe the purchasing/procurement function of your chosen organisation, which may be as simple as a single buyer or as sophisticated as a large purchasing/procurement department or any level in-between. Identify how procurement contributes to the profitability of the organisation. Discuss the procurement challenges caused by, and the possible procurement responses to the impact of Covid-19.

Answer

Introduction
Procurement and purchasing are the two most important aspects of commercial background. Procurement denotes the procedure of classifying, shortlisting, selecting, and attaining suitable properties and services from any third-party retailer by economical bidding, direct procuring, or tendering any procedure to ensure timely delivery of the precisequantity and excellence. Purchasing is a combination of functions that will be related to the services and goods that any association will need. This technique has been involving some activities such as ordering, accelerating, receiving, and lastly accomplishing the payment. In this logistics and supply chain management assignment, the main functions of Procurement and purchasing will be discussed for United Retail. It will be simple for a single buyer as well as sophisticated for the huge purchasing in the sector.

The current procurement structure and evaluating the role and responsibilities of procurement in United Retail for the logistics and supply chain management assignment
The end-to-end Procurement structurecontains some steps that are discussed here in the logistics and supply chain management assignment. Firstmeasure the current market, then spot the probable and valuable suppliers, creation of the endorsement list of all salespersons, recognize internal requirements, create the buying order online, ask for their proposals and evaluation of all quotations, select of right provider and convert them effectively, getting goods and accomplishing the quality checks, emerging and managing contracts, to obtain approvals of the invoice and satisfying the terms and condition of the payment, and lastly maintain a good supplier bond (Osei-Tutu et al., 2019). On the other hand, here are some steps mentioned in thelogistics and supply chain management assignmentfor the purchasing procedure. Firstly, obtain a requisition of purchasing, request suggestions and evaluating extract, shipping all the official orders, receiving all the goods and services, examining the quality of all the items that are delivered, and lastly effecting payment to all merchants.

There is a huge amount of shareholders who have been involved from any core parties such as employees in various departments to exterior persons as differentvendors and othercontract representatives. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment findings, while a single purchasing cycle have been lasted for a short period but a full Procurement structure will be lasting for a month. The main objective of some superior Procurement will be moving further than all traditional views. The key role of Procurement in this organisation is to obtain the best services by retorting all those internal necessities. For understanding how the role has been changing, one needs to know all details regarding the purchasing (Moretto, et al., 2022). That will be starting from the initial objectives of any higher-class purchasing association. Through procurement, an organisation can collaborate with its internal and external customers and suppliers. Some of them are discussed below in the logistics and supply chain management assignment. Support operational requirementsaddressed in the logistics and supply chain management assignment

Supporting this flow mainly needs acquiring to:
• Understanding all requirements for the business.
• Buying services and products from the right source, at the accurate price, in the precise quantity, at the right description that will be meeting the requirement of users, and will be delivered at the correct time.
• Internal consumers of purchasing involve manufacturing the product, distribution centers, technical and engineering groups,information technology, research and expansion, and transportation and other relatedservices.

Managing the Procurement procedure and the supply base effectively and efficiently
For managing all Procurement procedures and another supply base efficiently and successfully, there exist some key steps that Procurement is highly required to follow. They are mentioned in the logistics and supply chain management assignment<

• Identifying all opportunities.
• Managing all operations, especially those are internal
• Achieving all objectives
• Identifying some opportunities such as evaluating and selecting all suppliers.

- All the consumptions are required to go through the verified Procurement procedure
- Functional inputs and engineering will be part of these procedures.
- Uses of tracking items should be increased
- Sales executives will not be permitted for entering some predetermined agreements without the participation of procurement.
- Increasing uses of all sourcing teams
- Reviewing all specifications or declaration of the work has been done
- Rereading all needs for the material and the service that have been provided
- Some alternative consistent materials will be suggested that will be helping to save some money for this United Retail.
- Periodic review of requisitions that will permit some higher leveraging of necessities
- To determine some method of awarding agreements
- To manage all activities of the supply base current suppliers are competitive or not, identifying some new probable suppliers, and also developing a better relationship
- Improving and developing the bond among all non-competitive current providers.

Developing strong relationships with all functional groups
Effective purchasing strategies are mentioned in the logistics and supply chain management assignment: • Classifying all critical materials and other services that are needed for supporting the main strategies of the organisation for the most modern product expansion, key performance areas, and many more.
• To monitor trends and supply markets like increment of material prices, changes in suppliers, and shortages and understanding the main impression of all these trends for making the organisation strategies more powerful.
• Emerging supply options and other services that need all support from the company's policies and other areas during the development of new products.
• Developing supply options and eventuality plans that will be supporting all plans of this United Retail Company.
• Managing all inner operations like
- Developing and maintaining procedures and policies
- Organizing all Procurement controls
- To present and leverage proper technologies and schemes
- To develop and maintain some plans and measures
- To provide Procurement guidance for this United Retail
- Providing some specialized pieces of training and expanding opportunities for all employees.
• Achieving this objective by
- The control of Procurement for this United Retail Association
- Sourcing the management
- Ownership and responsibilities to source all these procedures
- Communication of the process, purpose, and payoff
- Partnering and collaborating
- Lastly teamwork

It is found from the logistics and supply chain management assignment that procurement has contributed huge profitability to this organisation in various ways. It also helps in adding some values such as sustainability, cost escaping, and other vital areas. Effective Procurement is a premeditated goal for maximum businesses for the betterment of the organisation. Procurement is measured as a tactical function aiming for the improvement of the profitability of this United Retailorganisation. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment if it will be succeeded proactively, Procurement can help in driving the values of the businesses and also for the bottom line development. The first and main perspective is that reducing costs has been performed as the superior way for maximizing the profitability of the business. Any business that is looking for an increment in its profitability desires to implement some active Procurement procedures that help in preserving cash, reduce all risks of fraud, and also help in eliminating rogue expenditures (Patrucco, et al., 2019). As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment if Procurement cannot be managed properly, organisations can mislay a huge amount of money. According to some laws, if an organisation will be spending a large amount of revenue on Procurement, then minor cost lessening will have a large impact on the area of profitability.

Some ways help to the increment of the organisation's Procurement. Some of them are elaborated in the logistics and supply chain management assignment
The preeminent news is that with the help of Procurement approaches and tools, purchasing functions will make a substantial contribution to profitability. It is also used for securing the financial prosperity of this organisation. With the help of digital Procurement Software, one can recover control of the total procedure of Procurement (Kasonde, et al., 2019). As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment it is also used in the reduction of cost, enabling maintainable savings, and for general development.

• Streamline procurement procedure: it helps in fast-tracking all workflows with automation. With the help of the right procurement tools, all processes will be simplified. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment it also helps in enhancing productivity and also reducing the overall time that has been spent on some tasks that are multi-touchpoint or monotonous. Employees have enough time for focusing on the premeditated initiatives (Kamble& Raut, 2019). As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment findings, the automated workflow will be used in replacing the procedures that are admin-intensive and they also certify that pertinent users will be notified whenever the action will be needed.
• Gaining more spending under the management:Organisations need to ensure that their team will be purchasing from their contracted salespersons. Some contracts have been negotiated earlier and they have channelized all spending consequently to guarantee that people will purchase services and goods at affordable pricing. It is found from the logistics and supply chain management assignment that digital procurement software also helps to ensure that purchasing will be occurred for all high-performing salespersons and also helps in eliminating their rogue outgoings.
• Centralized data discussed in thelogistics and supply chain management assignment:if the organisation and its dedicated team will be spending a lot of time tracking all documents that are related to procurement, they will not be able to capitalize their resources on accessible pricing, performance determining, and also for improving the profitability of procurement. Procurement documents will be digitalized which helps in enabling some ways of matching the invoice and reclaiming a lot of time in a day.
• Quality for more purchasing discounts: besides the automated, faster, and Enterprise resource management integrated procedures, people can receive their invoices that are approved. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment they also ensure all payments are done timely that will be hoping to improve the relationship among merchants and also save all opportunities. With the help of spending luminosities that are technology-enabled, and other analytics, and reporting abilities one can leverage all data for negotiating the discounts of volume, the concession of price, and earlysettling dates.
• Alterationof spending behavior: usedfor endorsing any responsible spending values and bettering all behavior regarding spending.As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment any digital procurement tool is active to ensure the responsibility of the cost-conscious and also for authorizing all users for making effective decisions for spending. By accessing mobile applications and web browsers there will be no justification for not succumbing to any purchase or any request for the expenses (Schiele, 2019). The rules and regulations will be simplified for expenditure and repayments cannot be taking place without any purchases that are system permitted or making any requests for expenditures.
• Consolidating purchasing orders: procurement research for thelogistics and supply chain management assignmenthave been showing that purchase order dispensation will be varied by the industry in some circumstances. With procurement software, one can centralize and consolidate orders for different users, divisions, and departments, and also for mitigating some costs for processing. They can get better deals and accessibility and discounts.
• Mitigating risks: by the help of procurement software, it is quite informal for ensuring that the organisation will spend all procedures and policies. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment conformation of the allocation of authority, rules and regulations of approvals, limits of spending, reports of expenses, and purchasing requisitions will help notify if any breaches of noncompliance or policy will be done. Authorized managers will be helping to review the impression of spending against the budget before appreciating all requests. This insight informs processes of decision-making and enables the effective control of cost. It is found from the logistics and supply chain management assignment that those risks of fraud will be mitigated for adult trials, and accountabilities, intensifying all workflows for approval, and all-embracing transparency while purchasing all reports of expenditures from endeavoring any actions of rogue acquiring.

The procurement challenges and the possible procurement responses to the covid-19 impact are discussed in the logistics and supply chain management assignment. Procurement professional will be managing their daily actions of ongoing projects for the United Retailorganisation have been addressed. Covid-19 has disturbed the association world and experiments for the readability of the supply chain. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment procurement functions and sources will face demand inequities to lead to some inventory encounters, uncertain dependability regarding deliveries, and greater risks for the situation of all suppliers. Nontransparent supply chains are needed to give extra focus and flexibility on the functions of procurement and sources along with the risk management for some sustaining operations (Priestmanet al., 2019). It helps to become United Retailorganisation more successful shortly. For building these competencies, the organisation has to gain the ability to react the flexibilities to all the challenges in the corporate environment. Firstly, for ensuring the safety of supply from the current dealers, priorities will be given to achieve all visibility directly. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment it also helps in extending the supply network. Secondly, they need to stay close to their clients for classifying all changes for the demand patterns. Thirdly, their technique of working revising the operational model will help in making the function of procurement more active according to their business partners (Sönnichsen& Clement, 2020). Fourthly, for building aprocurement function that is future-proof, they will invest their money and both time to bettering all abilities of risk management and other tools for digital procurement.

Now, most industries are in the phase of recovery and they need to act on all involvements in the crisis of COVID-19. It will reshape their procurement functions and sourcing. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment for emerging strong in those functions, they need to work on recovery and addressing some vital topics such as Supply is diversified: by assessing the dependability and financial health of all service providers, the organisation will strengthen its collaboration for leveraging the cost.
Visibility is precious:for enhancing the visibility of the enlarged supply network, the organisation needs to work on identifying risks and also for their capacity constraints.
Client demand is changing:it is advised in thelogistics and supply chain management assignmentto stay close to their clients for understanding their requirements that can be shifted on purpose. Stock is rebalanced: by rebalancing these stock levels and reassessing their category of strategies, it will be aligned with the after-COVID planning of the supply chain. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment procurement influencers are quite close to agreeing to imagine all functions of procurement that are needed. Both for the transition of operating the new model and to recover their efforts that can fit into their expectation. To mitigate these challenges mentioned in the logistics and supply chain management assignmentfor United Retailorganisation they should need some responses like recalibrating those targets that are cost-saving by zero-based categories and also for the value creation strategizes. Next by unlocking some new and advanced opportunities that can be invested in all partnerships between suppliers and their joint inventions (Ershadi, et al., 2021). They can use the process of accelerating the value to capture, spending analytics, and leveraging digitalization. On the other hand, organisations with some new procurement functions help in all collaboration among supplies for all parties. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment it helps in boosting their profits and revenue. Organisations that are innovating purposely by a partnership with all suppliers will be achieving better earnings progress. While procurement bests mainly emphasize the service, procedure, and innovation of those products with their service providers, some of the collaborations will be encompassing innovation for their business model (Denny-Smith et al., 2020). Vertical incorporation chances can be emerged for opening other unexploited value sources. As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment procurement procedures can be cancelled or delayed in some of the current projects because of the COVID-19 pandemic.Procurement specialists are advising all countries to take action but there are certain chances of contracts being terminated or delayed for forcing some major situations as suppliers and workers for self-isolation purposes.

Conclusion
As per the logistics and supply chain management assignment findings, purchasing is an essential part of doing business in the current competitive market and all those roles of purchasing units of an organisation cannot be highlighted. Procurement also plays a vital part to rationalise all progressions of an organisation. It helps in collaborating with external as well as internal clients and other contractors. It is analysed from the logistics and supply chain management assignment that the performance of procurement helps in the profitability and other sustainable abilities of the organisation, especially for United Retail.

References
Denny-Smith, G., Williams, M. and Loosemore, M., 2020. Assessing the impact of social procurement policies for Indigenous people. Construction management and economics, 38(12), pp.1139-1157. Ershadi, M., Jefferies, M., Davis, P. and Mojtahedi, M., 2021. Achieving sustainable procurement in construction projects: The pivotal role of a project management office. Construction Economics and Building, 21(1), pp.45-64.
Kamble, S.S. and Raut, R.D., 2019. Evaluating the factors considered for procurement of raw material in the food supply chain using Delphi-AHP methodology-a case study of potato chips processing company in India. International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 26(2), pp.176-189.
Kasonde, L., Tordrup, D., Naheed, A., Zeng, W., Ahmed, S. and Babar, Z.U.D., 2019. Evaluating medicine prices, availability, and affordability in Bangladesh using World Health Organisation and Health Action International methodology. BMC health services research, 19(1), pp.1-12.
Moretto, A., Patrucco, A.S., Walker, H. and Ronchi, S., 2022. Procurement organisation in project-based setting: a multiple case study of engineer-to-order companies. Production planning & control, 33(9-10), pp.847-862.
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Patrucco, A.S., Moretto, A., Ronchi, S. and Luzzini, D., 2019. Organisational choices in public procurement: what can public management learn from the private sector? Local Government Studies, 45(6), pp.977-1000.
Priestman, W., Collins, R., Vigne, H., Sridharan, S., Seamer, L., Bowen, D. and Sebire, N.J., 2019. Lessons learned from a comprehensive electronic patient record procurement process—implications for healthcare organisations. BMJ Health & Care Informatics, 26(1).
Schiele, H., 2019. Purchasing and supply management. In Operations, logistics and supply chain management (pp. 45-73). Springer, Cham.
Sönnichsen, S.D. and Clement, J., 2020. Review of green and sustainable public procurement: Towards circular public procurement. Journal of cleaner production, 245, p.118901.