Workshop on Developing Purchasing Policies, Procedures and SLAs

Program overview:

In a competitive business environment, it is not only necessary to have skilled Procurement professionals, but to ensure that the organization can implement appropriate strategies through the application of clear purchasing policies and processes, and can measure performance with relevant Key Performance Indicators and Service Level Agreements.

Purchasing policies, processes and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) guide the activities of purchasing professionals and their business partners, and provide a functional and moral compass. To ensure effectiveness, these documents must be aligned to the strategic intent and the broader environment of the organization. They must also be written using an appropriate language level and style.

For whom:

This program is designed for purchasing and supply chain management professionals at all levels of the organization, as well as other company personnel involved in the purchasing process. It will also benefit organizations who want to optimize their procurement processes.

Learning objectives:

At the end of the course, participants will be able to: 

• Outline the strategic role of purchasing in the organization
• Choose the appropriate SLAs and KPIs
• Formulate policies to effectively govern the organization’s purchasing activities
• Design cross functional processes and procedures that optimize effort, cost, time, output and controls
• Develop SLAs that set smart rules of engagement between the purchasing department and the rest of the organization
• Write policies and procedures that are clear and implementable

Course outline:

Day 1: The strategic role of purchasing

• Purchasing terms and definitions
• Evolution of purchasing into a strategic function
• Purchasing relationships within the organization
• Purchasing process,
• Ethical principles governing the purchasing function

Day 2: Using an appropriate writing style

• Writing in an impersonal style, Organizing paragraphs and sentences
• Writing applications, Simple language, Specific language
• Positive language, using active verbs
• Applying easy and effective grammatical rules
• Gunning fog index for writing complexity

Day 3: Writing purchasing policies

• Purchasing policies: what are they and why do we need them?
• Guidelines for writing purchasing policies
• Purchasing policy scope,
• Policy contents and exclusions
• Developing purchasing policies – practical application

Day 4: Designing purchasing processes and procedures 

• Defining processes and procedures
• Considerations in developing processes and procedures
• Process development, Artistic processes, scientific processes
• Process hierarchy, Abstract processes, Strategic processes
• Operational processes, Measuring and improving process performance
• Rules governing the use of flowchart symbols
• Mapping your processes using swim lane flowcharts
• Writing detailed procedures to support process maps

Day 5: Developing service level agreements

• The role of SLAs,
• Understanding departmental inter-dependencies
• Principles for developing SLAs that add real value
• Typical SLA table of contents, Writing SLA practical applications
• Service level management,
• Internal SLAs, External SLAs
• Measuring the purchasing function performance against SLAs

Training Methodology

Lectures, discussions, exercises, case studies, audio-visual aids will be used to reinforce these teaching/learning methods.