Too much depends on one purchase person
Identify supplier knowledge and routines that exist only with one employee.
01 · What is usually happening?
One person knows which supplier is good for which item, who to call when something is late, and what the real rate is. None of that is written anywhere.
When they are on leave, or leave, the business discovers how much was in their head.
The question people usually ask“What if they were not here?”
The more useful question“What does this person know that should be written down, and who else can do the work?”
02 · Common causes
- 01Supplier knowledge is personal, not shared
- 02Rates and terms are in chats and memory
- 03No second person is trained on purchase
- 04The ERP is updated late, if at all
- 05Relationships with suppliers are held by one person
- 06Nobody has asked what would break if they left
03 · What to check now0 of 6 checked
04 · What good looks like
- 01Supplier details, rates and terms sit in a shared list.
- 02A second person has placed POs and knows the process.
- 03Key supplier contacts are shared with a deputy.
- 04Decisions are written with their reason.
- 05The person can take leave without a crisis.
05 · Where this connects
This rarely stays in one department
What it can lead to: A week of absence turns into late material and lost orders.
Start from a problem
Work flows left to right, top to bottomKEYMost important for manufacturing
These support every part of the business
Problem
Too much depends on one purchase person
Usually connected to
How it spreads
- Purchasing & Suppliers
What it can lead to: A week of absence turns into late material and lost orders.
lamplamp could build the supplier list from existing chats and POs.
08 · lamp
lamp could keep this moving
lamp is not available yet. These are things it is being built to do.
- lamp could build the supplier list from existing chats and POs.
- lamp could keep rates and terms up to date as POs are placed.
- lamp could let a second person ask which supplier to call first.
- lamp could show which suppliers rely on one contact.
Does your business handle this differently?Tell us what we have missed: a cause, a check, or a better way of handling it.
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