Procurement Situation Research Articles

The Mechanisms That Will Ensure Efficient Supply Chain Management Processes of the South African State-Owned Enterprises

This study explores the various mechanisms that will ensure efficient supply chain management processes in South African State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The main objectives of the study are to identify the best strategies that will enhance efficiency within the State-owned entities and to examine the current situation of SOEs procurement and Supply Chain Management processes in South Africa. The study will also examine the challenges of supply chain management within the SOEs. The South African Government does not have adequate expertise to implement public procurement policy framework, supply chain management enablers, strategies, policy, and enforcement of government procurement rules and regulations. This leads to management failure, compliance shortcomings, waste, and fraudulent activities. The study adopted the conceptual approach relying heavily on secondary data to demonstrate the role of the mechanisms that will enhance efficiency in the SOEs. The study concludes by giving an exposition of the South African Legislative Framework governing supply chain management practices.

Analysis and Countermeasures of the Current Situation of Government Procurement in Colleges and Universities under the New Situation

The implementation of the Government Procurement Law of the People s Republic of China in universities is not only a requirement for regulating the procurement behavior of higher education institutions, but also a need for the development of universities themselves. Due to various factors, there are many problems in the implementation process of government procurement in current higher education institutions. Analyze the current problems in government procurement in universities and provide some specific suggestions and measures for reference.

Fuel Procurement strategies of coastal coal-fired power plants under the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals

Under the background of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal and the construction of a new power system with new energy as the main body, coal-fired power generation enterprises are facing a complex and severe business situation. Based on the current situation of coal procurement in power plants along the southeast coast of China, this paper constructs a coal procurement model that weighs imported coal and domestic coal, and simulates the impact of demand index, season and weather factors and other factors on the risk resistance capability of power plants. Taking the coal procurement data of H Group as the model parameter data to simulate, the model simulation results show that: flexible adjustment of imported coal proportion according to the seasonal change can effectively ensure the coal demand. It is a long way to go to develop new energy to replace coal. We can gradually establish a low-carbon energy consumption system by actively developing renewable energy. The fluctuation of domestic and foreign coal prices significantly affects the demand of coal, and the price and quality advantages of imported coal cannot be replaced.

Government procurement in Ecuador: analysis and perspective

The purpose of this research was to analyze the situation of public procurement in Ecuador, considering both the previous political regime and the significant changes that have occurred with the implementation of the new public procurement law, as well as the principles that must be met. A methodology based on review and documentary analysis was used, considering current laws and current regulations. The results show that the need for annual planning and budget allocation is a crucial problem that must be solved in the country's public procurement field. It is concluded that it is necessary to implement the new procedures established by the Organic Law of the National Public Procurement System to create a transparent, efficient, and dynamic contracting system that broadly benefits the nation and its inhabitants.

A study of university procurement performance based on big data on government procurement

The scale of government purchases in colleges and universities has been growing as a result of the elevated importance China has given to education. Investments in scientific research and education have also expanded dramatically. Most universities currently pay little attention to performance evaluation in government procurement work, do not fully complete government procurement performance evaluation work, or are still in the mapping stage of government procurement performance evaluation. As a result, the performance evaluation index is comparatively small. In this paper, we establish a government procurement performance evaluation system for universities in combination with big data on government procurement, and we put forward recommendations for universities to further improve the performance management of government procurement. We do this by analyzing the current situation of government procurement in contemporary universities and the shortcomings in the performance evaluation work of S colleges and universities.

ПУТИ РАЗВИТИЯ ЗАКУПОК СТРАХОВЫХ УСЛУГ У СУБЪЕКТОВ МАЛОГО И СРЕДНЕГО ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСТВА

The article is devoted to the analysis of the current situation of procurement from small and medium-sized businesses in Russia within the framework of 44 and 223 Federal Laws. The main problems and trends of these purchases are considered. The analysis of the dynamics of the decrease in the number of insurance companies – representatives of small and mediumsized businesses in Russia was carried out. The situation with the state of licenses of insurers by types of insurance as of March 2022 has been structured. The situation with the provision of preferences for procurement from small and medium-sized businesses was considered separately within the framework of 44 and 223 Federal Laws. Proposals are made to reduce the risks of industry monopolization in these segments and the development of unfair competition due to a decrease in the number of players in the insurance market of the Russian Federation.

Data-driven modeling of CO2 emission-allowance compensation for wood-purchasing optimization toward carbon–neutral forest industry

The faster market changes of EU’s CO2 emission allowance price have increased operation challenges in wood supply of forest industry. The objectives of this study are to present basics of its data-driven modeling for purchasing renewable forest wood. Particularly, the effects of the changes in prices and available carbon sink are considered in management of wood purchasing at the level of the local districts. Two scenarios described procurement situations in non-renewable carbon sinks. The results were compared to the scenario in renewable carbon sink of carbon–neutral forestry. Time-varying emission-allowance parameters of models affected wood purchase and deliveries in the districts. Therefore, cost efficiency of wood-supply operations, as well as the utilization rate of renewable wood resources, can be optimized by data-driven dynamic wood-flow models in digitalized decision support. In addition, the results testify that the model optimizes wood purchasing in the districts at the way of CO2 emission allowance market. Therefore, by using the model wood-supply operations could be optimized toward carbon neutrality, which is important success factor of forest industry.

On the Road to Circular Public Procurement: Case, Variations, and Potential Actions in Germany

According to the United Nations, the consumption of materials is expected to double between 2020 and 2050. At the same time, annual waste generation is forecast to increase by 70% by 2050. The circular economy (CE) addresses this problem. However, many barriers to the further development of the CE exist. This article analyses the situation of public procurement in supporting a sustainable CE for tyres in Germany based on 18 interviews with public procurement professionals directly responsible for the purchase of tyres and four additional expert interviews. Based on the dimensions ‘current circular public procurement (CPP) intensity’ and ‘current CPP opportunities’, a classification of tyre procurement situations and barriers to sustainable circular tyre procurement is presented. Strategies to overcome these supply-side and demand-side barriers are specified, resulting in nine recommendations for German policymakers. As a way forward, a detailed concept for a pilot project on tyre CPP is provided. The article also shows how the circular public procurement classification can be used to support sustainability measures in a broader context. Finally, the article’s outlook focuses on implications to promote sustainable circular tyre procurement in other countries. It explains different framework conditions and elaborates to what extent additional research is necessary to develop appropriate recommendations for those conditions.

A Grounded Theory on Sustainable Circular Public Procurement in Germany: Specific Product Case and Strategies

By using its purchasing power to procure environmentally friendly goods and services, the public sector can significantly contribute to sustainability in production and consumption. The sector’s support is also needed for the development of a circular economy (CE), but the absence of a suitable procurement practice often constitutes a barrier. A pressing example for a global need to develop the CE further exists in the tyre context. By the end of 2030, the number of end-of-life tyres (ELT) is expected to rise significantly. This article analyses the role and situation of public procurement and the necessity of quality infrastructure elements to support a sustainable tyre CE in the European Union’s member state Germany. It relies on a multiple case case study-based Grounded Theory approach and 22 interviews with public procurement professionals. Five types of barriers for sustainable circular tyre procurement were identified, concerning regulatory, technical, social, market, and ecological aspects. Possible strategies to overcome them were developed, leading to 14 recommendations for German policymakers and public procurement organisations. In particular, the recommendations focus on the two quality infrastructure elements ‘standards’ and ‘labelling’, with four standardization aspects and eight labelling topics in total.

Information Sharing in Procurement Contracting with Multiple Suppliers and Input Interdependencies

This paper analyzes a procurement situation where a manufacturer decides on sharing proprietary information with suppliers of complementary components when these components are commonly used for several products. I find that the interdependencies have profound impact on the manufacturer's information sharing strategy. The manufacturer may engage in selective information sharing, making demand or cost information accessible to one supplier but concurrently withholding the same information from a second, complementary input supplier. Information sharing to the second supplier is intermediate whereas concealment is two-tailed. Selective information sharing arises because in light of component interdependencies the disclosure strategy causes two competing forces – lowering one component's costs versus increasing the other's costs.

Benchmarking Procurement Cost Saving Strategies for Wood Supply Chains

Intense international competition pushes the actors of wood supply chains to implement efficient wood supply chain management incorporating coordinated cost-saving strategies to remain competitive. In order to observe the effects of individual and coordinated decision making, mixed-integer programming models for forestry, round-wood transport, and the wood-based industry were developed and integrated. The models deal with operational planning issues regarding production, harvest, and transport and are solved sequentially for individual cost optimization of each wood supply chain actor as well as simultaneously by a combined model representing joint cost optimization in an integrated wood supply chain. This allows for the first time, benchmarking relative cost-saving potential of the wood procurement strategies coordinated transports, integrated supply chains, satellite stockyards, and higher truck payloads within a single case study setting. Based on case study data from southern Austria, results show the advantages of an integrated supply chain with a cost-saving potential of up to 24%. Higher truck payloads reinforce this potential and enable up to 40% savings compared to the predominant wood procurement situation in Central Europe. Wood supply chain integration for Central European circumstances seems to be feasible only for a limited consortium of a few companies, for example when restricted to a wood-buying syndicate supplying several industry plants or a few large forest enterprises, especially as both groups are commonly steering wood transport on their own. Consequently, further research on the challenging task of implementing integrated supply chains using the opportunities of digitalization to realize existing cost savings potential by deepening cooperation and intensifying information exchange is needed.

Does formalization or centralization mitigate uncertainty in knowledge-intensive procurement?

PurposeThis study aims to assess the following question: “which information processing approach, formalization or centralization, responds to procurement complexity and how does this affect procurement performance in knowledge-intensive procurements?”Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on a survey of 294 Project Managers with recent experience of knowledge-intensive procurement. It uses AMOS version 21 to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling to assess the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.Research limitations/implicationsDrawing on information processing theory, this study highlights the importance of two information management approaches in knowledge-intensive procurement, and that such procurement situations share similarities with new product development and other innovation-rich, team-based activities. Knowledge-intensive procurement situations, therefore, require different information management practices than other types of procurement.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.Originality/valueThe study is the first to examine information management approaches (formalization and centralization) in knowledge-intensive procurement as responses to project complexity, and as contributors to procurement performance.

The use of analytical procedures in audit of procurement of goods, works, and services

Subject. The more intensive use of the Unified Information System in Procurement data helps evaluate the reliability of statistical reports in procurement of goods, works, and services and ensures the efficiency of the procurement process. Used for auditing, analytical procedures allow to analyze the feasibility of procurement, make some quantification, and apply informal methods by identifying the specifics of basic provisions of statistical reports. Objectives. We investigate the use of analytical procedures in procurement audit so as to evaluate the existing procurement situation of a business entity, possible solutions and development paths, and determine the corruption risk indicators in procurement. Methods. The study relies upon methods of trend, structural and coefficient analysis, comparison, grouping, methods for systematization, analytical processing of economic data and presentation of findings. Results. We justify the use of analytical procedures in audit as they are supposed to provide users of statistical reports with relevant information to explain their administrative decisions on procurement management. The verification of statistical reporting data can be hampered with, for example, the coefficient method, since it focuses on the correlation of the expected bona fide competition level, which has been attained, and the effective standards in regulatory documents on the contractual system. Conclusions and Relevance. As part of procurement audit, analytical procedures may apply to the deviation from target and previous indicators. Scrutinizing causes of such deviation, it is possible to evaluate the dynamics of procurement in the long time horizon and the reliability of statistical reporting.

Pharmaceutical procurement among public sector procurers in CARICOM.

ABSTRACTObjective.To examine multiple aspects of the medicines in CARICOM procurement markets, including manufacturer headquarters location, regulatory history, and type (innovator versus generic); the proportion of World Health Organization (WHO) essential medicines; and the most expensive medicines procured.Methods.An analysis of procurement information from selected CARICOM procurers. Four public sector procurement lists were obtained based on public availability or sharing of data from public sector procurers. Analyses were based on parameters available or deduced from these data.Results.The majority of products come from manufacturers headquartered in North America and Europe (63%–67%). The percentage of medicines procured from generic companies is 60%–87%; and 25%–50% of medicines procured are on the WHO Essential Medicines List. Wide price variations exist in the most expensive medicines purchased.Conclusions.The analysis identifies vulnerabilities and opportunities in the procurement situation of CARICOM states, particularly related to quality and rational use of medicines. This analysis represents a baseline that governments and other stakeholders can use in the future.

Factors Influencing Organisational Buying Decisions in the Manufacturing Industry: Are Products and Services Procurement Different?

Abstract The paper explores factors influencing services procurement decision-making of manufacturing companies, and compares it to factors influencing products procurement decision-making. Data were gathered by survey among manufacturing companies and analysed by using exploratory factor analysis. The comparison between factors influencing services procurement and factors influencing products procurement is made by content analysis. Results prove that six distinct factors influence manufacturing companies when making services procurement decisions: interdepartmental communication, trust in service provider, service provider flexibility, buyer’s price sensitivity, top management support, and service provider competence. When compared to products procurement situation, it can be observed that some of the factors are influential in both purchasing situations, whereas other factors are not similarly important in both purchasing situations. The paper offers an insight to factors influencing buying decisions of manufacturing companies, that can help selling companies to better understand the differences in procurement processes of manufacturing companies in two buying situations: products procurement vs. services procurement.

A standardization approach to Virtual Commissioning strategies in complex production environments

The ongoing industrial revolution puts high demands on the component manufacturers and suppliers to meet the tough requirements set by the development industries to follow the technological advancement of highly digitalized factories with more future-oriented applications as Virtual Commissioning for cyber-physical systems. This paper provides a production system lifecycle assessment regarding the technical specification strategies using Virtual Commissioning for implementation and integration of new systems or plants and its predicted future challenges. With the use of standards and a common language practice between a purchaser/contractor procurement situation and across the different technical disciplines internally and externally, the implementation strategies is reiterated to achieve a new sustainable business model. The paper investigates different types of production systems and how a defined classification framework of different levels of Virtual Commissioning can connect the implementation requirements to a desired solution. This strategy includes aspects of standardization, communication, process lifecycle, and predicted cost parameters.

Public Procurement Reform for Ease in Doing Business

Public procurement is one area needing governmental reforms. It is largely governed by dated rules that businesses feel are not able to encompass the complex needs of a modernising Indian economy. They also feel that there is a plethora of public contract rules often not in harmony with each other creating confusion and giving opportunity for corruption. However, the Modi regime’s anti-corruption mandate should not stifle business initiative that is the main critique against the Public Procurement Bill (2012). An amended public procurement law should inter alia be comprehensive in its coverage. It should incorporate new forms of tendering to cover complex procurement situations, maintain balance between the cost and the quality in tender awards, check abuse of monopoly in single-source procurement, prevent ‘digital divide’ in transparency provisions, maintain balance between external openness and promotion of domestic economy in market access provisions, encourage sustainable public procurement, incorporate effective mechanisms for redressing grievances of bidders and avoid penal provisions punishing offences covered by existing laws. Regulatory reform in public procurement will have substantial economic impact, as government contracts annually average approximately 30 per cent of India’s GDP and cover almost every sphere of government activity. Hence, such a reform will improve India’s anti-corruption/ease of doing business global rankings.

Empty stocks and loose paper: Governing access to medicines through informality in Northern India

Based upon research in the state of Bihar, India, this article argues that informal access to medicines in Northern India is a core element of the government of healthcare. Informal providers such as unlicensed village doctors and unlicensed drug sellers play a major role in access to medicines in Bihar, in the particular context of the dismantling of public procurement services. Building on recent works in the socio-anthropology of pharmaceuticals, the article shows the importance of taking into account the political economy of drugs in India, in order to understand local problems of access more fully. If informal providers occupy such an important position in the government of healthcare in India, this is partly due to the shaping of healthcare as access to drugs on health markets. Elaborating the argument from interviews with health professionals and patients, the article first shows the situation of public healthcare and public procurement in Bihar; then it presents the role of informal medicine providers; lastly, it shows how patients deal with the fact that they live in a ‘pharmaceutical world’ where access to health equates with access to medicines.

New roles for end-users in innovative public procurement: case study on user engaging property procurement

ABSTRACTImproving valued outcomes of public procurement lies in user and community co-production. Applying insight from network role theory, this case study tackles challenges faced by both procurer and supplier in interacting with diverse service end-users in various procurement situations. The findings are based on interview, participant observation, and documentation data from three innovative property procurement projects. We suggest four situation-specific roles end-users adopt: conventional, cooperative, collaborative, and controlling. The article reasserts the dispute of viewing end-user’s role only through interpretation of either private-sector consumer or public-sector citizen, while a mix of both views is needed.

Medidas de prevención de corrupción y refuerzo de la transparencia en la contratación pública

Este trabajo reflexiona sobre la situación de la contratación pública y las posibles medidas para corregir adecuadamente los problemas de opacidad y corrupción en la contratación pública en España.