Question
Advanced Practitioner Corporate Award
Assessment Code: APCM
This assessment tests the learning outcomes and module content of:
Module: Advanced Category Management in Procurement and Supply Chain Management
Task
You are required to select an example of a category of procurement or a product, service or works bought by your organisation and create a category plan. This should include an implementation plan which also identifies the challenges in implementing your plan and your strategies for mitigating the challenges.
Solution
Table of Contents
2.0 Background of Organisation and Selected Category of a Product. 5
2.2 Selected Category of a Product. 5
3.1 Kraljic Portfolio Matrix of the Stationary Office Products. 7
Supplier View of Customer Account. 8
3.3 Overall Cost of Ownership Analysis. 10
3.4 Porter’s Five Forces for Office Products Category Plan. 12
3.5 SWOT Analysis in Context of Business of the Product Procurement. 12
3.6 Strategic Sourcing of the Stationary Office Products Category. 13
4.0 Category Plan Implementation, Challenges and Solutions. 14
4.1 Arranging Overall Organisation around the Customer. 14
4.2 Building a Functional Level of Trust with Suppliers. 14
4.3 Ability to Measure Success of Category Plan. 15
4.4 Category Role and Definition. 15
5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations. 16
References and Bibliography. 18
Executive Summary
This assessment has created a category plan for DCT stationary office products procurement. The category planning has been identified as a process that is aligned to business objectives and developed with key customer stakeholders. This has been identified as having a direct impact on influencing sourcing strategies and contract management initiatives. The developed category plan has been aligned with the customer business objectives with a strategic approach being on value maximization, risk reduction and effective management of the supply of goods and services. The category scope of office products procurement by DCT has been evaluated and the different categories identified. To identify the supply positioning, a Kraljic Portfolio Matric, SWOT analysis, Porters 5 Forces and business environment has been used. Also, the key facts and insights on market competition and total cost of ownership analysis have been carried out. This is inclusive of an implementation plan that has been developed, different challenges in plan implementation identified and strategies for challenges mitigation.
Taking into account the findings, there
are different recommendations that can be generated for improving the category
plan by DCT in the procurement of the stationary office products in their main
office. The recommendations include improved supplier relationship management
and improvement, significant Sourcing Strategies and a Continuous Improvement
in the entire process of category planning.
1.0 Introduction
Category planning is identified as a process of developing a category plan aligned to the customers’ business objectives with a strategic approach of value maximization, risks reduction and effective management of supply of goods and services. According to CIPS (2013), category planning is supposed to be aligned with the business objectives and its development with key customer stakeholders. Additionally, successful category plans are supposed to be influencing the sourcing strategies and different contract management initiatives. From a general perspective, O’brien (2019) defines category management as a supplier process of managing the categories as strategic business units, producing enhanced business results by having a focus on customer’s delivery. As shown in figure 1, category management is categorized into category planning, sourcing, and supplier management.
Figure 1: Planning Fitness in the Category Management
In most organisations, category planning is implemented by sourcing managers to rationalize their suppliers, buying power aggregation, driving down pricing and ultimately improving their supplier performance against their contract. This is done to produce an interactive and collaborative business process where the distributors and suppliers operate as partners for enabling their creation and management of customer-oriented category plans. Similarly, in the category planning, the best practice is alignment with customer business plans, procurement targets and customer stakeholder strategies. Prior to the category planning, diagnostics is implemented for developing category profile and market research and intelligence. After category planning the category management is implemented. With this background, this assessment intends to create a category plan of a category of a product procured by the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) in Dubai UAE. This would be inclusive of an implementation plan and identification of challenges in implementing the plan and strategies of mitigating the challenges.
2.0 Background of Organisation and Selected Category of a Product
2.1 Introduction to DCT
The Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) is tasked with regulating, developing and promoting the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The promotion majorly focuses on areas such as making Abu Dhabi a global destination, rich cultural authenticity, diversity in their natural offerings and unparalleled family leisure and entertainment attractions (DCT, 2019). Their practices are aimed at supporting the Abu Dhabi Emirate as a world-class, sustainable destination. Having been set-up in alignment with the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, it offers immense contributions to the country economic diversification, operating collaboratively with different stakeholders in marketing Abu Dhabi locally and internationally.
2.2 Selected Category of a Product
The selected category of a product is office supplies. This includes the expendable items used for the official administrative purposes in an office. In the DCT, these products are characterized by a low per-item cost, easily portable and a lower service lifetime since they are consistently expended by the staff members in the process of their daily tasks. Further, office suppliers in DCT are further grouped into the stationery and office products. These include the core products such as the general stationery, office paper, printer consumables and office filling. The non-core products include the janitorial, print and forms, canteen supplies and office furniture. Nevertheless, the non-core products are optional subcategories inclusive of alternative supply agreements in place at some locations. The product category tree is as shown in figure 2 below;
Figure 2: Category Tree of the Selected Category
2.3 Scope of the Report
The scope of the current report has been narrowed down from a broad procurement and supply chain management to category planning of stationary office products by DCT in their main office in Abu Dhabi.
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