Effective Implementation of Purchasing Operations

“There is clear evidence from recent research studies that even in large multinational companies purchasing tends to be regarded as a function allied to production and responding to the needs of marketing.” The dependence of procurement operations on the trend of sales was recognised in a pioneering article. It organised purchasing strategies around the concept of product life cycle (PLC). In turn, this article served as the basis for field research, which verified much of the model. Meantime, independent of these two investigations, other models of purchasing activities used the same integrating concept. As will be shown, recent experience and research have substantially modified and enriched the earlier PLC models.