Today's Tips

Using Available Time to Conquer Purchasing Workload - 12/01/2006
If you are a typical purchasing professional you need to: Locate new sources of supply Interview new suppliers Visit supplier facilities Contact supplier references Clarify requisitions Obtain bids Analyze bids Plan and conduct negoti...

Placing Orders Not Enough - 11/01/2006
Most of us want to do a good job for our employer. Most also probably feel they are doing so and are surprised if they don’t get a big raise or the raise they do get is not as much as they expected. Some feel they should get a promotion. Think a...

Business Buying Requires Additional Skills - 10/01/2006
There are many differences between the way consumers buy and the way business buys. Even though they both use some similar methods the differences are important for successful business transactions. Both consumers and business buyers shop, but goo...

Know Your Purchase Volume - Information to Improve Performance - 09/01/2006
One of the most valuable tools for buyers is the availability of information about the amount of purchases. Organizations are rightfully concerned about the number of pieces of each item that are on order or that are on hand, but we are not talking...

How to Reduce Purchasing Paperwork - 08/01/2006
Small organizations usually have little paperwork involved with the buying operation. In part, that is because in the beginning they usually don’t even have a formal purchasing department. Either the president, or others involved in the organizat...

Save Price Quote Information - 07/01/2006
It is a real challenge to accept a job as Buyer or Purchasing Manager and find that your new employer has kept no record of prices paid. Price histories are a highly valuable tool to use when comparing new prices and before placing new orders. Mos...

How to Get Noticed - 06/01/2006
If you are ambitious, you want to get the attention of upper management. That’s okay. Just be careful you get noticed at the right time and for the right reasons. Time after time we see employees who think they know what the boss wants. They thi...

Avoid These Time Wasters - 05/01/2006
If you are like most of us in the purchasing function, you would like to have more time. There just does not seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that you would like. You can improve the situation by eliminating time wasters an...

Question the Price Formula - 04/01/2006
Marketing people seem to be related to makers of income tax forms. Why make it simple, if it can be made complex and difficult to understand? Marketers love to devise price formulas that are needlessly complicated. Why do they do it? Our guess is ...

Changing Strategies and Tactics - 03/01/2006
Most of us tend to use the same strategies and tactics continually. We tend to use what we first learned or what fits our personality. This is especially true if the methods that we first use prove successful. However, the same strategies and tact...

Changing Strategies and Tactics - 03/01/2006
Most of us tend to use the same strategies and tactics continually. We tend to use what we first learned or what fits our personality. This is especially true if the methods that we first use prove successful. However, the same strategies and tact...

Evaluate Your Contributions - 02/01/2006
Proper use of your available time maximizes your efforts. Conversely, the inefficient use of the minutes you have dilutes your contributions to the organization. There are many things you can do to manage your time. Here are some specific ways that...

Evaluate Your Contributions - 01/01/2006
If you question most employees, they will tell you they think they are doing a good job and are working hard. If you ask their boss, the answer may be very different. Obviously, this is a problem. Quite often the employees are not aware of the bos...

Improve Purchasing Results with APS Tools - 11/01/2005
Every new member of the American Purchasing Society receives more than a dozen highly valuable sheets of information. Keep these sheets available to make it easy to achieve better purchasing results. For example, suppose you are interested in obta...

Negotiate Private Labeling to Reduce Costs - 09/01/2005
  Companies spend a significant amount of their resources to advertise their products. Consequently the cost of the marketing effort is included in the total cost of the product. The price includes all the costs plus a markup for profit. Buyer...

Use MacRAE'S BLUE BOOK - 06/01/2005
Find the supplier that you need....

How You Predict the Low Price Time - 04/01/2005
Most buyers for business are forced to obtain products and services when an employee from another department asks for them. This doesn’t matter much for the majority of products, because the prices for those items are not volatile and seldom cha...

Encourage the Use of Purchase Requisitions - 05/01/2004
In some companies when someone needs a product or service the request is made orally. When many of these oral requests are made in a relatively short amount of time, it becomes difficult to remember who wanted what and when it is needed. Even hand...

What Activity Should Be Reported - 04/01/2004
Last month we said that what you report and in what manner depends on your company’s management style. Busy managers like oral reports. Giving reports orally without planning what you are going to say and how you are going to say it can do more ...

Advantages of Reporting Activity - 03/01/2004
In general, buyers and purchasing managers do a very good job keeping cost under control and obtaining products when needed. They probably don’t do as well reporting their activities and successes. Some feel that it should be apparent that they ...