Whether you ride herd on a compact Procurement operation or a wide-open supply chain organization, you can count on one constant: Demand for consistent improvement.

This doesn’t have to mean overhauling everything you do, buying new software or coming up with a novel way to count inventory.

Actually, it can be pretty basic: Document what you do, measure it and compare it, and engage in ongoing improvement.

You’ve heard of KISS, right? Keep It Simple Stupid.

That term applies to a lot of what goes on in the workplace, and you can apply it to Procurement operations and duties.

The simpler your routines, duties and rules are, the better chance there is that people will be able to follow the path you’ve set down for them.

There are three steps to establishing that path:

• Goals: What’s the most important part of what you do? What are the expectations? Establish your own metrics, to measure your Procurement efficiency against the expected goals. You can get an idea and ballpark figures on performance metrics from professional associations, research groups, and even your peers.
• Documentation: Get it down on paper. Write down what the goals are. Write down the expectations for staffers. Document what you want — otherwise people naturally slip back into their old ways. It’s also worth a few minutes to run your ideas by your boss, to make sure you’re both on the same page — and that someone will back you up down the road, if necessary.
• Maintenance: Getting everything up and running takes talent and organization. But once your Procurement operation has hit its stride, it’s not time to ease up. Improvement is an ongoing process. Establish convenient junctures — 60 days, 90 days — to sit down and evaluate performance. Are you hitting your goals? If not, is it an operational problem, or perhaps were your goals set too high? Demands change, too, so it’s important you constantly have an eye out for shifting a gear here or changing direction there.

Tags: efficiency, inventory, procurement, supply chain