Purchasing: Finding Sources of Supply

Overview/Description
Your organization's purchases probably account for the largest share of its total costs. Having a clear understanding of your product and service requirements and conveying those requirements to the right suppliers may result in huge savings for your organization. But finding the right suppliers takes effort. First you need to identify the best available suppliers based on reliable information and research. Then you need to prepare a solicitation document, such as a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation, and send it to the qualified suppliers. This course discusses how to find sources of supply using this solicitation process and prepares you to choose the best sourcing strategy for a given purchase. It discusses how purchase requisitions are created and how information about suppliers is proactively researched. Finally, it covers how, based on this information, solicitation documents are prepared and sent to potential suppliers for their responses.

Target Audience
Supervisors, team leaders, managers, and nonpurchasing professionals who want to develop or refine their purchasing and vendor management skills

Expected Duration (hours)
1.0

Lesson Objectives

Purchasing: Finding Sources of Supply

choose the best sourcing strategy for a given purchase

complete a purchase requisition

identify the types of information you need to obtain about potential suppliers

identify sources that contain information about potential suppliers

match types of solicitation documents with their corresponding characteristics

determine which type of solicitation document to use given a scenario