8600-333 Understanding Procurement and Supplier Management in the Workplace

Unit Overview

8600-333 Understanding Procurement and Supplier Management in the Workplace is a unit within the ILM Level 3 module that helps the leaders at different levels within the organisation to understand the purchasing and supply policies and procedures. Leaders should be able to understand elements associated with procurement and supply within the organisation to ensure that they are able to effectively handle the processes they are tasked with in the organisation. Procurement and supply procedures and practices involve the purchasing processes that are followed when the organisation is placing an order for materials, equipment or other things that may be needed.

Leaders, therefore, must understand this process to ensure they are able to efficiently make purchases on initiating the processes, as well as ensure they can effectively monitor and evaluate the procurement and supply processes to facilitate improvement and success within the organisation.8600-333 Understanding Procurement and Supplier Management in the Workplace is a unit that focuses on improving relevant skills in acquiring this knowledge on procurement.

The aim and purpose of the unit are to develop knowledge and and understanding of procurement and supplier management which are critical in facilitating the success of a team or unit within the organisation where the practising or potential first-line managers have influence. The unit is taught in 7 hours of guided learning and contributes 2 credit values towards the completion of ILM Level 3 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Procurement and supply management is the task of the leaders within the organisation. The process is conducted through eh purchasing unit or department of the organisation. However, all leaders must understand the principles associated with effectively managing suppliers and organisation within the organisation to ensure that they are able to effectively manage the purchasing process within the unit.

This involves being able to identify and validate procurement requirements that are made to the organisation and identifying the relevant and typical purchases that the leaders may encounter in their areas of responsibility. Leaders should also understand the supply process within the organisation, which is critical in informing the processes that are pursued in making purchase requests and initiating supplies.8600-333 Understanding Procurement and Supplier Management in the Workplace is a unit that provides the basic information on the elements of procurement and supplier management. This unit is designed to serve the needs that first-line managers may have on effectively handling and managing the purchase process from their context and areas of responsibility.

It helps them to understand organisational policies and principles that are applicable when making purchases within their organisations hence improving the performance in relation to effective handling of purchasing procedures. The content of the unit is, however, applicable to the middle and executive manager who are required to establish the procurement and supplier management policies within the organisation as well as external consultants who provide support to the decision-making process in relation to procurement and supplier management. Team members and general employees can pursue the unit to prepare them for leadership positions that they may be promoted to in their careers.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Explain the procurement procedures in their organisation

• Disrobe the process of identification and validation of procurement requirements in their organisations

• Identify typical purchases that could be experienced in their areas of responsibility or operation

• Identify the supply chain of the organisation

• Describe the various types of specifications that can be used within the organisation

• Identify specialists and suppliers who are engaged with their organisation and the various approaches that are used to identify and select the specialists and suppliers

• Explain methods that are used within the organisation to monitor the performance of specialists and supplies and facilitate continuous improvement among specialists and suppliers.

Key Learning Areas

8600-333 Understanding Procurement and Supplier Management in the Workplace is a unit that helps learners to develop an understanding of the procurement and supply processes within the organisation. As such, the content of this unit revolves around these two subjects. The main areas covered are:

Procurement

This area of learning focuses on guiding learners to understand procurement procedures and services. The learners are guided to understand the different sources of supply and procurement needs of their organisation that may necessitate initiation of the procurement processes. They are also taught the legal and ethical factors that are in play when establishing the procurement process that ensure that the suppliers are protected from exploitation by the organisation.

Additionally, this area of learning helps to identify different specifications in the procurement process, which include input, output and function, as well as typically facilitates management procurement activities. Lastly, the learners are introduced to supply chains and guided on effective approaches that they can use to manage the supply chains that have been embraced by the organisation.

Supplier Management

This area of learning focuses on the range of specialists and suppliers that are required to facilitate the success of the organisation. Learners are introduced to different services that are received from specialists based on contract or full-time agreements, such as cleaning, security, IT and telecoms, among others. They are also guided to understand the suppliers within the organisation who provide different products and supplies.

Additionally, in this area of learning, the learners are guided o understand the selection and procurement processes that include competitive approaches, sustainable procurement, fixed price tendering and other techniques to identify, select and engage suppliers and specialists. Lastly, the learners are guided through procedures that they can use to ensure that they manage suppliers and specialists. Since these are external individuals contracted for various services, performance and monitoring is a complex aspect that the learners need to master techniques to use to ensure performance management for such stakeholders is effective, and this area of learning provides them with this information and skills.

Evaluation

Learners must master theoretical and practical information within the unit to achieve the desired goals and objectives of learning. Assessment of the accomplishment of these goals is conducted using a written assessment which determines mastery of theoretical content. Simulated exercises and supervised practice can be used to determine the practice based on learned concepts.