Chapter I: Past, present and future developments in
purchasing provide the rationale for this thesis
I Past, present and future developments in purchasing provide the rationale for this thesis
By now it is beginning to be accepted both in theory and practice that purchasing is a factor of strategic importance for an organisation, rather than a merely administrative and operational activity (see e.g. Van Weele, 1997; Van Stekelenborg, 1997; Lonsdale and Cox, 1997; Telgen, 1997). In this chapter we discuss in detail how as a consequence of present and future developments, the increased importance and complexity of the purchasing function leads to purchasing decisions becoming more important and difficult. Next, we explain why in order to deal with these more important and complex decisions, it makes sense to consider supportive decision models for purchasing. As a result of many years of neglecting purchasing, such models are not yet sufficiently available. Therefore, we argue that it is useful and appropriate to invest research effort in supporting purchasing decision making through models.
Present and future developments make purchasing decisions more important and complex
In this section we investigate how developments in purchasing lead to purchasing decisions becoming more important and complex. The purpose is to investigate these developments thoroughly as well as to show the relevance of decision models for purchasing in the light of these developments. In our analysis, we assume that purchasing decisions become more complex if:
- An increased number of alternative courses of actions can be taken
into account, e.g. more potential suppliers to choose from as a consequence of emerging supply markets (e.g. Eastern Europe, China, NDC’s);
- An increased number of criteria or considerations have to be taken
into account, e.g. environmental criteria;
- A faster decision making process is required, e.g. because of ever decreasing time-to -market demands;
- An increased number of people from various disciplines become involved, e.g. cross-functional development teams;
- Etceteras.
In addition, we assume that the relevance of decision models further increases when developments lead to a greater need to justify and explain decisions, due to the increased importance of decisions (because of more severe direct or indirect consequences of bad outcomes of decisions).
Our analysis of the developments is organised as follows. After discussing the current impact of purchasing, we investigate developments on a macro-economic level that may (also) have consequences for purchasing in companies and organisations in general and therefore also impact purchasing decision making. Next, we investigate developments on an organisational level that directly or indirectly may effect purchasing decision-making. Finally, we present an overview of very specific evidence in the literature of unique opportunities for using decision models in purchasing
Purchasing has already shown a growing direct and indirect impact on organisations
The supposed increased importance of the purchasing function is first of all and most notably reflected in the growing share of the turnover or budget organisations spend on paying their suppliers for delivering all kinds of products and services. The purchase value of goods and services already contributes substantially to a company's turnover. Telgen (1994) reports an average figure of 63% for Dutch companies, while companies like Canon and Sony show figures of circa 90%. The trend towards specialisation and focus on core-activities will lead to a further increase of purchasing's share in total turnover. An amazing example of this is the well known software company Microsoft (Corbett, 1997): ”..Microsoft does not produce or distribute any of its products. All of the production, all of the manufacturing, basically, is done by (a supplier, De Boer)…Microsoft has outsourced most of its financial functions. Microsoft does not even manage the PC’s at their headquarters”.
Secondly, the significance of the purchasing function can be related to the growing need for companies to simultaneously meet market demands such as price, quality, flexibility and the level of innovation (Bolwijn, 1986; Wijnstra, 1997). In order to meet these demands as well as to achieve cost reduction, companies have been forced to apply a more integrated approach in quality management and logistics. The success of efforts initiated in these areas depends to a large extent on the way the purchasing function is managed, e.g. when it comes to the process of supplier selection.
Furthermore, the purchasing function also contributes indirectly to improved company profits and stronger long terms positioning. Proactive management of the supplierbase, a continuous search for substitute materials and early supplier involvement in the design and development phase may not only lead to significant cost reductions but can also improve the quality of products and processes and can strengthen the innovative power of the company (Buter and Ederveen, 1997; Van Weele, 1997).
Finally, the insight emerges that apart from focusing on the purchasing of raw materials, components and capital equipment for the primary (production) processes, professionalizing the purchasing of non-production items and services is becoming a means for achieving drastic reduction of expenditures (De Boer and Telgen, 1995). This means that purchasing has not only become an important function in industrial companies but that also the service industry, governments, health care and other non-profit organisations are beginning to recognise its potential.
An important implication of this development is that with the increasing importance of the purchasing function also the decision making on purchasing issues becomes more critical. This especially applies to the more tactic and strategic purchasing decisions e.g. make-or-buy and supplier selection decisions.
Developments in the international business and government environment further complicate purchasing decision making
Van Weele and Rozemeijer (1996) point out the several developments in the global business environment that will shape the purchasing function in the decades to come: globalisation of trade, the emergence of the Information society and changing customer preferences. We believe that these developments are also specifically important in relation to purchasing decision making.
Globalisation of trade enlarges purchasing’s choice set
Globalisation of trade and increased international competition is considered to be a result of factors such as the following: deregulation on behalf of governments, intercultural homogenisation, the forming of trade regions, e.g. EU, improved transportation and the revolutionary developments in the area of IT. An important consequence of this development is not only an increase in potential customers, e.g. in Eastern Europe and China, but it also creates a bigger set of potential suppliers to evaluate and to choose from. It will directly effect purchasing decision-making.
Internet enlarges the choice set as well
The emergence of the so-called Information Society is based on the spectacular growth of the Internet. The Internet is expected to continue to change society and business as a whole, and not in the least it will change purchasing (see Telgen, 1998). Although there may still be technical limitations and doubts about safety, e.g. when paying over the Internet, Internet already serves a wide range of useful purposes for purchasers, e.g. market research, formulation of product specifications, finding information on suppliers etceteras. Although only a few suppliers actually have sites on the Web, Internet provides the purchaser with a wealth of additional information. From a decision making perspective, it again means that there are more alternatives to choose from and/or more data to compare and to decide on.
Because of the increased scale of the decisions (e.g. more suppliers to choose from) and/or the increased complexity (e.g. much more data that could be used to decide) a systematic approach to decision making, e.g. through the use of appropriate decision models, seems the right way forward, even when in some respect purchasing decisions seem to become easier, e.g. because of the increased (price) transparency in the market.
Changing customer preferences require a broader and faster supplier evaluation
The third development mentioned by Van Weele and Rozemeijer concerns the changing patterns in consumer behaviour in the sense that consumers increasingly take into account other factors in addition to price, e.g. service, comfort, quality, fast delivery etceteras.
Because of the growing set of products consumers can choose from, they become more sophisticated and demand improved benefits from the products offered. This in turn means that firms are under increasing pressure to develop products that are sufficiently innovative. As a logical consequence, these firms also transfer the increased demands they face upstream to their suppliers (Biemans, 1997). We believe that this not only means that choosing the right suppliers becomes more important but that the process of deciding is further complicated as an increasing number of factors (relating to the additional demands) have to be considered.
Concerning the developments in the business environment, Van Weele and Rozemeijer (1996) draw the following conclusion (p.46): “ The business environment will be highly uncertain in many industries in the next decade...... Size, common sense and past experience count for little in these unpredictable times”. We believe this conclusion, especially their remark on common sense and past experience, clearly emphasises the need to seek ways of further professionalizing purchasing decision making and hence illustrates the relevance of the problem statement in this thesis.
Public procurement regulations enlarge purchasing’s choice set and demand transparent decisions
In addition to developments in the business environment, developments in the (international) government environment are also particularly relevant to the problem statement of this thesis. Driven by the goals of establishing a single European market, fair competition, open and non-discriminatory government purchasing policies and not in the least achieving drastic savings in government spending and fighting fraud and corruption, the so-called EC-directives on public procurement were introduced. These directives require among other things that public purchasers follow certain specified procedures and time frames for all purchases (goods, services and works) above certain threshold contract values, 5 million ECU for Works and 130,000 ECU for goods and services. From Pontarollo (1997) we point out the following elements of the compulsory set of purchasing procedures:
- Request for quotations may be open for all suppliers, restricted to a
previously qualified subset or in some (exceptional) cases negotiated with chosen suppliers;
- Selection of suppliers and contract-award must be according to clear,
objective, prestated criteria;
- Purchasers are either to accept the lowest price, or the most
economically advantageous bid based upon the evaluation of a wide
range of criteria such as delivery times, after sales service etceteras.
These compulsory procedures seem to make a strong case for the problem statement in this thesis and suggested approach, i.e. investigating and developing decision models for supporting purchasing decision making.
First, the number of alternatives to consider, i.e. the number of quotations, may be far greater than before because invitation to tenders must be advertised in the official EU journal. Managing a much bigger number of tenders and suppliers requires a more structured and efficient decision making process. Purchasers must decide on how they are going to decide on the tenders that they will receive, e.g. whether or not to construct a list of qualified suppliers instead of directly advertising a call for tenders in the official journal[1].
Secondly, the requirement of selection according to objective, prestated criteria forces purchasers to adopt an explicit, systematic and unambiguous approach to both the formulation of criteria and the process of arriving at a final ranking of the tenders based on these criteria. In other words: purchasers are actually forced to use decision models, at least according to our definition of a decision model (see chapter 2). However, many government organisations still do not apply the EC-procedures or at least have problems with implementing the procedures (Telgen and De Boer, 1997; Green Paper, European Commission 1996). There may be several reasons for this, e.g. fear of time consuming complicated processes and the administrative burden. The underlying factor seems to be the often low status of the governmental purchasing function and its low level of professionalism (De Boer and Telgen, 1998). We believe that in general, a structural professionalization of the governmental purchasing function is required in order to achieve more transparent purchasing practices and ultimately to realise improved purchasing performance. The availability of appropriate and useful tools, i.e. decision models facilitating EU-tender processes, may be an important contribution to this professionalization.
We started this section with discussing the impact of the globalisation of trade and the emergence of Internet on purchasing decision making in businesses. However, purchasers in government organisations may experience similar developments, as can for example be deducted from the 1996 Green Paper issued by the European Commission (1996, p. 26): “In the longer term, the way forward for electronic procurement will undoubtedly be a fully electronic tendering system. This could include the extension of electronic procurement to meet existing mandatory requirements under the Directives (such as the obligation to publish) but, far more dramatically, to cover every other part of the procurement process”.
Developments in business strategy and structure further impact purchasing decision-making
We now discuss trends and developments in business strategy and structure that in our view will affect purchasing decision making and thereby provide an additional rationale for investigating and developing decision models for purchasing. First up is the ongoing trend to outsource so-called non-core activities. Secondly, we discuss the increasing importance of time in business strategy. Finally, attention is paid to trends in organising businesses and business functions such as purchasing.
The increase in outsourcing means: more decisions, criteria, alternatives and people involved
Numerous articles, dissertations, conference proceedings and books have been written on the trend in business strategy to focus on a few so-called core competencies and consequently to outsource the remaining non-core activities. In other words: non-core activities that used to be carried out in-house are now purchased from suppliers. Reasons for outsourcing may be the following (Welsh and Nayak, 1992):
- Convert fixed costs to variable costs;
- Balance workforce requirements;
- Reduce capital investment requirements;
- Reduce costs via suppliers’ economies of scale and lower wages;
- Accelerate new product development;
- Gain access to invention and innovation from suppliers;