It's not my job!
By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/6/1999
One reason why many companies seem to be missing the boat on improving ordering practices may be that in many companies the purchasing function is in the process of change. As a result, in many companies transaction processing is no longer the purchasing manager's main job.Neither, say a growing number of professionals, is shopping the main purpose of the purchasing function. In fact, some purchasing managers feel that the only reason for having a purchasing staff is to apply judgment. Says one Midwestern purchasing director, "When making purchases gets to be an automatic process of filling requisitions, when the judgment aspect of the job has been eliminated, it's probably time to start thinking about eliminating the job--or at least handing it off to some other function in the company."
Purchasing in many companies is often described this way: The production manager calls and says, "Send over six widgets," and the buyer calls a supplier and says "Send over six widgets, and how much are they?"...and the supplier says, "you'll have them Tuesday and they're $3 each"...and the buyer tells the production manager that he'll get six widgets on Tuesday.
"That's shopping," says Anderson. "It isn't purchasing. Purchasing is a job of money management and to do it right the most important requirement is that its practitioners know the operation of the company and the systems it uses. They need to know and understand how all the interdependent parts of the whole interact with each other."
However, warns Anderson, a purchasing manager who allows a computerized purchasing system to be installed without understanding and approving how it works "is failing to do his job as a professional."
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