Procurement Role in Expenditure

Leading global excellence in procurement and supply

Corporate Award Submission and Assessment Feedback Candidate Membership Number: 005560614 Programme: SABIC C6 P Integrative Event ID: 106704820 Assessment Opportunity: 4 Integrative Assignment

This Assessment Distinction Merit Pass Fail N/A Structure and Presentation 20% 

• Creation of a logical flow of content • Incorporation of numbered contents page, executive summary,

sections that cover conclusions and recommendations when relevant, references and bibliography

• Ease of understanding the content included • Layout of text, inclusion of graphics, tables, data, references,

headings, numbered paragraphs • Use of appropriate appendices • Composition of answers in keeping with any desired word count,

timescales or other limitation

Research 20%  • Collation of primary and/or secondary research • Use made of quantitative and/or qualitative data • Analysis of the research conducted • Reasoned critique of research provided • Acknowledged information sources

Knowledge and Approach 20%  • Demonstration of acquired understanding of theory, models,

techniques, processes, outcomes or other aspects of the syllabus • Appropriate selection of content to formulate answers • Methodology pursued to develop answers

Application and Insight 40% 

• Application of theory, models, techniques, processes, outcomes or other aspects of the syllabus

• Creation of proposals for change that can achieve business improvement

• Recognition of boundaries that can affect proposals made • Production of a business case or implementation plan when

relevant

1

Strengths and weaknesses of the assessment: Thank you for your assignment.

This task requires you to develop a document that creates a sourcing plan for future requirements. Better marks would therefore have been awarded if you had linked your summary promoting your main findings and recommendations in relation to the tasks which were for you to explain:

1. The roles of procurement and supply in managing this area of expenditure underlining the inputs that may be made by its stakeholders

2. Techniques that can be applied to the area of expenditure to improve added value 3. Inclusions that should be made in contracts formed in the future 4. Measures that can be taken to select effective suppliers 5. Any aspects of the purchase/supply that may require negotiation

Your executive summary served more as an introduction than underlining your main findings and recommendations in relation to the selected category of tubular goods. These could therefore have focused more directly on the roles of the procurement/ supply chain function in managing the tubular goods category underlining the inputs that may be made by its stakeholders, the application of any techniques to add value as well as the improvements that could be made to the contracts or to improve performance etc. Your introduction then included discussion on procurement and the need for alignment of corporate strategy and whilst these were true you could also have applied these more to SABIC as the section tended to adopt a very general essay on these aspects rather than providing organisation specific details. You did cover points 1-5 as mentioned above but did so in a very general way which did not directly relate to your organisation instead mentioning various geographic locations but not specific suppliers or relating any of this discussion directly to SABIC. Whilst you did provide an impressive bibliography and referred to a range of references within the main body the assignment itself did not answer the task asked. Also there was little or no mention of any of the tools and models taught on the programme. It is worth noting that a key element of the assignment process is to enable you to demonstrate how the tools and techniques taught on the programme can be applied to your organisation. For example, Mendelow, SWOT, PESTLE, 5 Forces, Kraljic and SPM could all be used in this assignment as well as negotiation theory including BATNA. So it would have been better to have introduced the area of expenditure that was used to base your analysis and then to have outlined your answers to these five tasks. The lack of a specific discussion of suppliers or in -depth analysis of a supply market throughout your report led to the report being very descriptive and not very analytical and not applied directly to SABIC. Your conclusions section was also very brief and could have been expanded upon and you could have included recommendations section as well.

2

Areas for improvement: The key to gaining better marks is to structure your answer around a product or service category as asked for in the question. This then allows you to provide a sourcing plan specific to that category and your organisation rather than provide a very generic discussion which does not address the question asked. You are advised to undertake primary research into your suppliers, the contracts that are in place, the performance of these suppliers, your stakeholders etc. to more directly answer the assignment tasks. You can then cover the stage-by-stage process following the procurement cycle from need identification through to contract award. You must identify the various models that can be used to assist you at each stage and specifically apply them to your chosen category. This will help you address the question that you were asked You can then proceed through each of the stages of a specifically designed sourcing plan. A major consideration is the requirement for pre-qualification appraisal and this should therefore be a key area within this report. To improve this report you need to start by outlining the product or service then the complexities of the market, how value will be added to your organisation by providing these services, your methods of market research, your recommendations for the best type of specification and contractual terms (i.e. recommending key clauses), methodologies of pre-qualification appraisal and the bidding process. You should then proceed to design the award criteria, discuss how this will be evaluated, the use of negotiation to add value and finally, reference to contract management. It is important to underline that this is a practical application rather than an academic review of the procurement processes. As mentioned, it is important that you select and use a broad range of models and tools but ensure you do not simply present generic versions. You should also provide an executive summary which provides a full summary of your whole report as well as a conclusions and recommendations section at the end.