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. In many industries, companies spend over 50 per cent of their total costs on purchased goods and services from suppliers. An important implication of this reliance on suppliers is that purchasing and supply management (PSM) becomes a key business function in many companies, and might play an important role in ensuring the competetiveness of these companies. This role includes navigating in a business context, which is besieged with challenges, including climate change and Covid-19.
How PSM can play this important role, by developing superior competences, processes and supplier relationships, by utilizing new digital technologies is at the core of this course. Students will gain understanding of the role of PSM in companies, and also in the public sector, which is a large procurer in most countries. The course is a mix of theoretical insights and high level analyses on the one hand and practical tools and examples 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 in relation to outsourcing/offshoring vs. backshoring decisions, category and portfolio management, sourcing strategies, and supplier relationship management. (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, CSR, Covid-19, digital transformation, 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.
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 spesific 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.
Teaching
Information about what is taught on campus and other digital forms will be presented with the lecture plan before the start of the course each semester.
| 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.