Category Management in Procurement

One of the many changes in Procurement as it moves away from its traditional transactional focus to a much more strategic focus and beyond is the introduction of Category Management into the Supply Management organizational structure.
Category Management is the application of Procurement best practices applied to a single category of the organization’s spend so that the Category Manager becomes the Chief Procurement Officer responsible for the organization’s management of the spend category.
This program provides considerations, methods, and competencies to provide the new Category Manager with the knowledge needed to accomplish this high-level responsibility.

This seminar will combine various instructional methods, including lectures by an experienced practitioner and consultant, exercises, and group discussions covering current practices and their relationship to implementing new concepts.

Organizational Impact:

The organization will benefit by:

  • A move to higher levels of strategic sourcing
  • Improved supplier and stakeholder collaboration with Supply Management
  • Broader ways of obtaining overall organizational objectives
  • Higher productivity of all those involved in the business processes
  • Greater strategic and big-picture focuses of all those involved in the supply chain management process

    Personal Impact:

    Attendees will gain by participation in this program as a result of:

    • Increased skill sets in implementing Category Management
    • Becoming more effective in expending resources on higher-value activities
    • Achieving a more strategic-big-picture focus
    • A greater sense of professionalism
    • Greater ability to lead continuous improvement programs
    • Increased recognition by the organization due to improved performance

    Who Should Attend:

    Managers and professionals involved in purchasing, projects, contracts, supply management, operations, maintenance, engineering, quality, and other activities that expose them to dealings with important spend categories and who want to improve the supply management process to the latest state of the art.

     

    Course Outline

    Session 1:   Benefits and Approaches for Category Management

    World-Class Supply Management will always be about continuous improvement, with the move to Category Management being a significant shift bringing numerous needed benefits.
    -- The History from Buyer to Category Management
    -- Defining Category Management
    -- Compared to Strategic Sourcing
    -- Benefits of Category Management

    Session 2:   Approaches and the Responsibilities of the Category Manager

    The approaches to Category management require competencies of the Category Manager that are significantly greater than that of the typical Procurement professional.
    -- Six-Step Approach-Key Questions and Checklists
    -- Responsibilities of Category Manager

    Session 3:   Defining the Scope of the Category

    There are numerous approaches to selecting the appropriate categories for category management depending on the resources and objectives.
    -- Spend Analysis
    -- Purchasing Hierarchical Coding to Define Spending Segments
    -- Segmentation Model
    -- Supplier Risk Management
    -- Total Cost of Ownership
    -- Applying Supplier Performance Measurement to Total Cost of Ownership

    Session 4:  Measuring the Performance of the Category Management Process

    The reality is that we cannot perform better than our suppliers, and improved quality, delivery, and service levels are consistently shown to be benefits of Category Management.
    -- Science of selecting and maintaining good supplier performance
    -- Monitoring supplier performance
    -- Maintaining a supplier performance index
    -- Applying Supplier Performance Measurement to Total Cost of Ownership

    Session 5:   Category Management Demands Reengineering  

    Category Management is a new and different approach and therefore requires other policies, procedures, and processes than historically used in the traditional methods.
    -- Procurement can only be as Strategic as the Process Allows
    -- Reengineering is a Must
    -- Eliminating Waste in the Supply Chain