Enhancing Accountability of Government-Linked Companies through Supply Chain Management Practices

Accountability has long been the major focus of government-linked companies (GLCs) as these firms are directly accountable to the taxpayers. While studies examining accountability of GLCs are widely available, very little evidence exist in investigating how these GLCs achieve accountability through supply chain management (SCM). Thus, the aim of the present research is to gain insights into how SCM practices create value to the firm, which in turn enhance accountability of the GLCs towards its ultimate stakeholders. A single case study approach was used whereby key research issues were mainly addressed through semi-structured interviews, observations and document reviews. Findings revealed that, consistent with the financial and social obligations of the GLC to its stakeholders, the firm was able to create value through supplier involvement, strategic supplier relationship and supplier development practices. The findings provide valuable input for similar companies to emulate these practices in order to achieve accountability through SCM practices

A proposed contract management framework for Eskom Transmission Division (ETD)

Thesis (M.Com.)- University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2005Eskom Transmission Division (ETD) is being forced to rethink its business development strategies, in order to deal with rapid technological, capital and social changes. As a result, there is a high need for contract managers to learn to procure goods and services effectively and efficiently. Subsequently, the capabilities and skills of buyers, and in particular contract managers, need to reflect Eskom's challenges faced in delivering on South Africa's developmental needs for affordable electrification. Because of the complex nature of contract management, it is required that a detailed and carefully written contract management framework that defines the commercial supplier relationship, contract management aspects of the results and the desired behaviour of the contracting parties, be established beforehand. Therefore, there needs to be greater emphasis on structuring and delivering of procurement training in the future, as contract managers will need to have skills to be able to work within a cross functional team, be strategic thinkers, and manage supplier base and relationships. A variety of methods can be used to implement training and they range from formal education, coaching, on job training and intemet training. The ETD senior managers need to monitor the performance of the contract managers wants the training methods have been introduced to identify the gaps. The aim is for this contract management framework to provide intangible elements of quality cost to enable contract managers to perform strategic sourcing in order to be innovative in their decision making. The contract management framework will focus on identifying and discussing strategic ideas that will enhance and improve the effectiveness of contract management at ETD. Contract managers need to be trained to enhance and update their skills. The training should focuses on: • Total cost of ownership in selecting the suppliers rather than concentrating on price only, • Reducing their supplier base and building strategic relationship with their suppliers, • Formation of formal cross functional teams, • Formation and management of supplier relationships, A Proposed Contract Management Framework for Eskom Transmission Division (ETD) By Thembisile Khomo ix • Monitoring and Measuring the performance of the suppliers and contract managers, • Strategic Sourcing, and all other cost reduction methods. This contract management framework will focus on the following cost saving and risk sharing opportunities, which will result in an efficient and effective contract management at ETD: • Expenditure Analysis In terms of expenditure analysis ETD should consider reducing the supplier base in order to consolidate and leverage expenditure and to manage the relationship with strategic suppliers more effectively. This will result in contract managers concentrating more on long term partnership and strategic relationships with its suppliers. As a result, ETD could benefit in terms of an increase in access to technology, where those suppliers that have received more volume and longer-term contracts become willing to invest in the manufacturing equipment that will improve their equipment production and processes. Because of the long term relationship that will be developed with these suppliers, they will also be willing to share the costs and risks with ETD. • Training and the Skills of Contract Managers It is very important for contract managers to be trained and have the required skills to manage contract. This was confirmed by the case study conducted in one of the ETD contract to refurbish transformers. In analyzing this contract, it was found that: ~ The rates quoted in the contract are above the market rates. ~ ETD contract managers do not challenge the specifications or operating practices and quotation costs. As a result most of the quotation costs or rates and ideas of how the transformers should be refurbished come from Rotek. ~ Contract managers do not know how much they spent in paying the labour, materials and other varied costs associated with the refurbishment of the contract. ETD has been paying numerous indirect costs or rates, such as A Proposed Contract Management Framework for Eskom Transmission Division (ETD) By Thembisile Khomo x additional overtime, rework due to unacceptable components quality, materials costs on heavily engineered components and so forth. All this contract mismanagement matters could have been avoided if the contract was managed effectively, and there is collaborative relationship with the supplier to ensure a solid working relationship and to reduce lead-time and costs. This relationship should be based on trust, cooperation, interdependence, joint quality improvement efforts, information sharing, risk and benefit sharing, and joint problem solving. Especially during the future capital expansion projects which ETD will be engaged in, there will be a high need for dependable suppliers to provide the required design and technological input needed for marketable profitable products and for satisfactory services to result. • Cross functional teams The formation of formal cross functional teams will help in making the decisions that impact multiple functional areas. Without the representatives of various areas the decisions are likely to meet resistance. Thus, if the representatives of each of the functional areas are involved on the team, they will provide beneficial input in the resulting agreement. In turn, each representative will be responsible for ensuring acceptance by his or her functional area, of the team's decisions. Cross functional teams also enhance problem resolution as the team will be bringing their different expertise in solving problems or making decisions. • Top Management Support For successful implementation of this framework, ETD top management need to support it by communicating its importance in terms of helping contract managers to think out of the box and see the competitive benefits of the new ways of managing the contracts. • Cost Reduction The cost reduction can be through the use of: A Proposed Contract Management Framework for Eskom Transmission Division (ETD) By Thembisile Khomo xi ~ Total cost of ownership (TeO) - where not only the price is considered when evaluating tenders from the supplier, but quality, delivery, maintenance, disposal and other cost saving ideas, including flexibility levels offered by the suppliers are considered by the contract managers. Thus, the contract managers need to have the skill to see the value stream, sequence of value creating steps required to design, make and deliver the product and to learn to remove the waste, mistakes and rigidities. Therefore in analyzing Tea, it is vitally important to understand the suppliers' market and financial reports to come to an effective solution with regard to the factors that make up the prices for the product or services they procure in addition what drives cost into the product or service in the market place. ~ Strategic sourcing - contract managers should focus on development of competitive value based pricing, where the overall costs are considered, and innovative strategic sourcing, where consideration is based on new products and services that deliver a competent advantage and new ways of doing business. For example, how quickly can the supplier adapt to changing ETD requirements? ~ Performance monitoring and measurement - contract managers need to continuous monitor the performance of suppliers based upon metrics that are directly derived from the service. By monitoring the performance of the supplier the contract manager will know in advance about any production or service delivery problem and come with mitigation steps together with the cross functional team. This will then prevent ETD in continuously accepting late and inadequate products or poor services from the suppliers. ~ Supplier relationship - the formation of supplier relationship with suppliers will benefit ETD in risk sharing and cost reduction. Therefore, the objective of a contract management framework must be to establish relationships with suppliers that have resources in order to integrate their specialist capabilities in a way that yield significant value potential from both sides. A Proposed Contract Management Framework for Eskom Transmission Division (ETD) By Thembisile Khomo xii ~ Training of contract managers - as there is greater emphasis on structuring and delivering of procurement training in the future, contract managers will need to have skills to be able to work within a cross functional team, be strategic thinkers, and manage supplier base and relationships. A variety of methods can therefore be used to implement training, which can range from formal education, coaching, on job training and internet training. Networking with other contract managers can also assist in the development of personal skills and adoption of better practices whether formally (as part of membership of a professional body) or informally (at conferences), exchanging ideas and meeting with other professionals can be extremely useful. The ETD senior managers need to monitor the performance of the contract managers wants the training methods have been introduced to identify the gaps. • Conclusion In conclusion, before a new contract is established, it is important to review the success and failures of the current contract, in order to establish a clearer understanding of what makes contract management successful. These lessons will then form the basis of planning tender requirements and negotiations for the next contract. For successful contract management, contract managers should ensure that a preferred relationship type and pricing structure is selected, and agreed succession plan. A contract review should also examine the cost-effectiveness and efficiency issues

A Framework for Sustainable Procurement Practice in the Irish Construction Industry

The Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has been called upon to develop innovative strategies to drive sustainability. Despite the efforts and commitments made, their performance is still observed to be low, this has been linked to the low level of understanding of practitioners. Also noted was the lack of interest by firms due to the uncertainty of the benefits of committing to long term investments. Nevertheless, academic literature and reports have stated that firms nowadays utilise their procurement mechanism to drive their sustainability practice. However, there is a gap in understanding how construction firms adopt and embed sustainability in their procurement process. Data was collected through the mixed-methods approach, and the single embedded case study strategy was used to understand an organisation\u27s sustainable procurement practice from the organisational and project level. Different statistical methods were used in analysing the data obtained. The findings revealed that construction-contracting firms have developed various policies and strategies aimed at promoting their sustainable procurement practice. These strategies were found to include investment in their core capabilities, development of long-term relationships and close collaboration with their supply chains. The adoption and utilisation of digital technology tools and resources were also found to have added value to the firm operations. However, it was noted that the level of collaboration within the firm in terms of sharing of information was quite challenging. Therefore, firms will have to develop strategies that will enable them to provide real-time data to disclose their sustainability performance. The study contributed to knowledge by unveiling the internal organisational strategies of large firms in driving sustainable procurement. Also, the study developed and validated a framework that will aid construction firms in disclosing and implementing their sustainable procurement strategy. Disclosing sustainability performance of construction firms enable their clients and the public to be aware of their contribution towards the sustainable development objectives

Improvements in the materials supply chain for a motor sport supplier using quality management techniques.

Ray Mallock Ltd is a medium sized business operating in one of the fastest developing, expensive, international industries, motor sport. A tremendous amount is spent every year on research and developing cars to go faster because the company’s reputation stands upon their cars winning. Motor sport is primarily located in the south of England with many small specialist suppliers developing around the various teams. The suppliers to the motor sport industry are often under considerable pressure to respond instantaneously to the needs of each team. With such a wide range of skills and types of suppliers the supply chain becomes very complex and awkward for a company the size of RML to manage as it requires a lot of resources. Therefore the overall project aim was to look at the approach RML took toward their supply chain and resolve the major problems that were encountered by the Materials Department. The Materials Department consists of Purchasing, Inspection and Stores. These departments are closely linked and incorporate quality. A number of quality tools were used to gather data and information regarding the department including interviews, , ) internal literature review, observation, flow process mapping, gap analysis and data [ collection. This highlighted a common problem to medium sized companies, informality. i Procedures were not in place so improvements were limited, a wealth of experience lay with employees regarding suppliers but this needed to be gathered and methods for ; \ selecting, appraising and measuring performance formulated. Communication externally needed improvement, with the high variability and randomness of orders placed with suppliers they needed to be made more aware of how projects are progressing to help them plan. There is extra emphasis placed upon critical components for car builds which is the reason why a supplier development scheme was adapted for use by RML. The project concludes that proper procedures, supplier appraisal and selection schemes, performance measurement and future supplier development, if used properly and wholeheartedly the tools ought to aid the department. The Materials Department can improve after the initial implementation by developing the tools and make real steps towards making better informed decisions about suppliers, managing supplier relationships, continuous improvements and contributing to the bottom line of RML.MRe

Main opportunities considering circular economy in the Portuguese ornamental stone sector

The main objective of this research was to analyze the OS cluster firms’ opportunities to consider the Circular Economy as a part of their corporate strategy. Barriers and drivers were identified, and a qualitative-quantitative analysis could be performed with the help of the multi-criteria optimization software M-MACBETH, resulting in a numeric indicator that provides an objective means to compare projects or opportunities of adoption of CE by a company. This score is a function of the qualitative factors that characterize the project or opportunity, and its main use is in the selection of potentially successful initiatives of adoption of CE.O principal objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar as oportunidades das empresas do cluster OS para considerar a Economia Circular como parte de sua estratégia corporativa. Barreiras e drivers foram identificados e uma análise qualitativo-quantitativa pode ser realizada com a ajuda do software de otimização multicritério M-MACBETH, resultando em um indicador numérico que fornece um meio objetivo para comparar projetos ou oportunidades de adoção de CE por uma empresa. Essa pontuação é função dos fatores qualitativos que caracterizam o projeto ou oportunidade e sua principal utilização é na seleção de iniciativas potencialmente bem-sucedidas de adoção de CE

The Strategic Supply Chain Management in the Digital Era, Tactical vs Strategic

The perspective of procurement and supply chain management is changing dramatically; traditionally, it was seen as a support function; however, the procurement function is receiving increased attention and investment as an essential contributor to the strategic success and a business enabler. While an end-to-end digital supply chain is an opportunity as it unleashes the next level of strategic growth and involves minimal investment in infrastructure, it is still a challenge to optimize and transform. Furthermore, the recent pandemics and geopolitical disruptions of Covid-19, the Ukraine-Russian war, Brexit and the US-China trade war; have structurally changed the global economy and revealed a new risk assessment that will result in the re-introduction of buffers, boundaries across industries and a partial return to regionalization with sort of de-globalization in which existing just-in-time getting replaced by just-in-case strategy

Robotic process automation framework - The implementation of Robotic Process Automation in Business Processing Outsourcing Organizations

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMDigital transformation is the digitalization of earlier analogue machine and material processes, service operations, and organizational tasks to aggregate new value for clients and employees. There is an increasing number of organizations that are taking advantage of digital transformation, competing in the market of the digital economy. The advances of the global market in competitiveness trigger organizations whose ambition is to distinguish themselves to develop more efficient and effective processes, delivering distinctive services or products to their consumers. When the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) processes are automated with Robot Process Automated (RPA), the organization can raise cost efficiency, acquire efficiency advantages, and increase their rank in the market. Additionally, when repetitive and tedious activities are automated, human employees have time and opportunity to enhance their cognitive judgment, creative thinking, and social skills. This research approaches the steps that lead to the elaboration of a framework that can be adopted in BPO processes, aiming to help in the knowledge of which processes are typical in BPO, and which of those processes can be fully automated, semi-automated or cannot be automated with Robotic Processing Outsourcing. Afterwards, are revealed the assumptions that were the base of the artifact elaboration, following the description of each component and stage that constitute the framework. Lastly, it is referred the validation of the framework by experts and the discussion of the obtained results, conclude the utility of the artifact as support to the automation of BPO with RPA

Analysis of sourcing and procurement practices : a cross industry framework

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-161).This thesis presents and analyzes the various practices in the functional area of Sourcing and Procurement. The 21 firms that are studied operate in one of the following industries: Aerospace, Apparel/ Footwear, Automotive, Computers, Communications Equipment, Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharmaceuticals, Petroleum and Retail. Those firms have been chosen for their overall supply chain excellence and the research builds on empirical data from case studies, literature survey and interviews with industry experts. By assessing the empirical data and the various practices, a framework is proposed to address the different options that the firms can use relative to the organizational structure of the Procurement Department. These options are based on a combination of the importance of the inputs and the supplier/buyer power differential. Lastly, this thesis identifies the factors that affect these options. Key Words: Procurement, Sourcing, Organizational Architecture, Corporate Strategy.by Ioannis G. Koliousis.M.Eng.in Logistic

The development and empirical testing of a pressure/ response model of green supply chain management amongst a cross-sectoral sample of members of The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

This study develops and empirically tests a model of factors determining green supply chain management practices in organisations. Previous research on aspects of green supply chain management is dominated by anecdotal, sector specific studies that examine specific aspects of the supply chain, such as purchasing or logistics. Many argue this field is embryonic and lacking a structured integrative framework of research. This study addresses this gap by focussing on a whole supply chain approach that provides a synthesis of previous research to develop a model of green supply chain management. The data from a cross-sectoral survey of 149 members the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply is used to test this model, using a variety of multivariate techniques. The model identifies environmental attitude as the primary determinant of green supply chain management practices, influenced to a lesser extent by external legislative factors. The influence of organisational contingencies on this model is also explored, and size identified as the only contingency that influences the relationships in this model. The dominant influence of environmental attitude suggests that within organisations there are internal factors, or individuals, that may push forward the green agenda, and those initiatives that focus on changing the environmental attitude/ culture of an organisation might be the most effective at improving environmental performance. This study suggests that factors previously identified as important within green supply chain management, such as supply chain or competitive pressures, are less influential than expected. However, future research should seek to compare the findings from this study with a larger, cross-sectoral sample that includes diverse organisations from different nations, sectors and levels of channel power