The procurement process of a company is overseen by a senior purchasing manager. He establishes the policies and procedures that allow employees to purchase goods and services from authorized vendors. He is responsible for the smooth operation of the company’s acquisition of goods and services, including process planning, bid tendering, contract award, and evaluation, as a senior manager.
The formalization of an organization’s purchasing process is known as procurement. Rather than allowing employees to buy from a variety of sources at their leisure, the company establishes a pool of authorized vendors from which they can make purchases. This enables the business to get the best deals, maintain a consistent level of quality, and avoid conflicts of interest. Furthermore, because authorized vendors are entered into a company database and managed centrally, procurement streamlines purchasing.
A senior purchasing manager oversees a staff of purchasing agents or managers in the company’s purchasing or procurement department. This senior executive is in charge of establishing the company’s purchasing policies and procedures, which are usually documented in a manual. He is expected to stay up to date on procurement best practices and incorporate them into the company’s purchasing system. The senior purchasing manager is often in charge of purchasing department staff training as well as regular staff education in proper purchasing procedures.
The senior purchasing manager and his team are in charge of finding new sources of supply in response to business demands. He needs to set up a system for identifying the company’s purchasing needs on a regular basis and then researching suppliers who can meet those needs. Even after a vendor has been chosen, the process of identifying new purchasing sources continues. It’s also possible that a new vendor will offer a better price or higher-quality product, so the senior purchasing manager needs to stay up to date on the latest options.
Senior purchasing managers are also in charge of overseeing the entire procurement process. This includes purchase planning, as well as making the specifics of the company’s purchase requirements available to vendors for bidding and contract awarding. The senior manager will almost certainly be personally involved in contract negotiations to ensure that the company receives the best possible price.
On the back end, senior purchasing managers are usually involved in the evaluation of vendors after the contract is awarded. The senior purchasing manager ensures that approved vendors adhere to the contract’s cost provisions, delivery schedule, and quality standards. He keeps track of employee satisfaction with approved vendors and creates a rating system so that performance can be evaluated quantitatively when a vendor’s contract is up for renewal.