GRA 6717 Purchasing and Supply Management
GRA 6717 Purchasing and Supply Management
Companies in today’s highly competitive and changing business context largely rely on other companies for much of the direct and indirect goods and services that they need. This incurs both challenges and opportunities for companies. While we have seen a tendency to outsource, especially to low cost countries (offshoring) over the past decades, two trends are now observed. First, the outsourced relationships shift character, from zero-sum games to collaborations. Second, many companies backshore, especially in the US due to corporate social responsibility (CSR) concerns, customer demands, and technological advancements, to mention a few driving factors. Nevertheless, in many industries companies spend as much as 60-80 per cent of their total turnover on purchased goods and services. Given this situation, purchasing and supply management (PSM) is clearly important for the competetiveness of companies, as well as for organisations’ efficiency and effectiveness in general. How PSM can play this important role, by developing superior (and increasingly digital) processes and supplier relationships, is at the core of this course.
Students in this course will gain an understanding of the role of PSM in organizations. Emphasis will be on purchasing as a boundary spanning function, and 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. This is particularly important as companies are besieged by challenges in today’s business context. The course is a mix of theoretical insights and high level analyses on the one hand and practical tools and implications on the other.
(i) To understand what PSM involves in terms of roles, functions and processes in today’s changing business context and society. (ii) To understand and appreciate the differences in the operational, tactical and strategic levels of PSM. (iii) To gain knowledge of and the ability to critically apply and evaluate central PSM models and strategies, e.g. portfolio management and segmentation, insourcing/outsourcing, sourcing strategies, and negotiation. (iv) To gain knowledge of new perspectives and trends within theory and practice related to the field.
(i) To be able to understand and conduct the PSM role and function in a professional way. (ii) To be able to critically evaluate and apply appropriate PSM models and develop appropriate strategies on various levels. (iii) To be able to communicate in the range of PSM professional roles, e.g. by acquiring negotiation skills.
(i) To understand and appreciate the role of PSM and subsequent decisions in today’s business context and its implications for the broader society, e.g. globalisation, climate change, digital transformation, CSR, etc. (ii) To appreciate and understand key theoretical perspectives in PSM. (iii) To be able to be a reflexive PSM 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.
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.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Duration: 48 Hour(s) Comment: Written home exam 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: 50 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) 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.