GRA 6717 Purchasing and Supply Management
GRA 6717 Purchasing and Supply Management
Companies in today’s highly competitive and changing business context increasingly rely on other companies for much of the direct and indirect goods and services that they need. In most industries, companies spend as much as 60-80 per cent of the total goods sold on purchased goods and services. While we have seen that many companies tend to specialise and outsource, especially to low cost countries (offshoring) over the past decades, we now observe two trends. First, the outsourced relationships shift character, from zero-sum games to collaborations, and second, many companies onshore and insource, especially in the US. Advances in digital technologies play an important role in this respect. Given this situation, purchasing and supply management, including managing suppliers and the purchasing process as such, is clearly important for a company’s (and other organisations’) efficiency and effectiveness.
Students participating in this course will gain an understanding of the role of purchasing and supply management in organisations. Emphasis will be on purchasing as a boundary spanning function. The students will learn how to deal with the challenges related to organising and operating a competitive supply base and how to utilise supplier relationships for enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness.
(i) To understand what purchasing and supply management involves in terms of roles, functions and processes
(ii) To understand and appreciate the differences in the operational, tactical and strategic levels involved in purchasing and supply management
(iii) To gain knowledge of and the ability to critique central purchasing and supply management models, e.g. segmentation, insourcing/outsourcing, sourcing, and negotiation models
(iv) To gain knowledge of new perspectives and trends in theory and practice within the field.
(i) To be able to understand and conduct the purchasing and supply management function in a professional way.
(ii) To be able to critically evaluate and apply key purchasing and supply management models
(iii) To be able to communicate in the range of purchasing and supply management professional roles, e.g. negotiation skills
(i) To understand and appreciate the consequences of modern purchasing and supply management choices, e.g. global/local sourcing, digital technologies, green/environmental considerations, etc.
(ii) To appreciate and understand multiple perspectives in purchasing and supply management.
(iii) To be able to be a reflexive purchasing professional.
- The role of purchasing and supply management: definitions, trends and challenges
- Purchasing and supply strategy
- The purchasing process
- Managing the supplier base, category management, and supplier relationships
- Organizing for purchasing and interaction with suppliers
Students are expected to actively participate through discussions and presentations.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on it'slearning.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 50 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision Exam code: GRA67171 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 40 Grouping: Group (2 - 4) Duration: 2 Month(s) Comment: Essay over a chosen topic from the course Exam code: GRA67171 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 10 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Exam code: GRA67171 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.