From the course: Careers in Supply Chain and Operations

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Sourcing, purchasing, and procurement careers

Sourcing, purchasing, and procurement careers

From the course: Careers in Supply Chain and Operations

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Sourcing, purchasing, and procurement careers

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- Do you like shopping? Well, buying products and services is an important part of running a supply chain. And the folks who do the procurement for a company play a critical part in supporting the whole business. The general term for buying stuff is supply management, but you'll also find companies that call it purchasing, procurement, sourcing, or acquisition. They all mean pretty much the same thing. So what's involved? Well, we have to start by figuring out what we need to buy and who will sell it to us. Then, we need to negotiate terms and put contracts in place with those suppliers, and then we'll start ordering things, making sure our suppliers are getting paid, and managing the quality of the products and services that are delivered. We also need to manage our supplier relationships. I know a lot of folks who started their supply chain careers as buyers or as purchasing analysts. They might have responsibility to buy only certain products or communicate with a couple of…

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