Employee not following Purchasing Process

T

texkb

#11
Is the employee a purchasing function personnel ?
If he is, then he perhaps has seen the approved supplier list and went about action as the procedure going upto management for signoff etc., seemed cumbersome for him.
If he is an other department personnel then you have a big task of correcting the company purchasing process.
Please do clarify, as purchase department does actions based on a specific department requestor for goods or services.
The person who conducted the purchase is our marketing manager. Some of the problem occurred because the material he needed, brochures on our product, where ones that he needed to take to Germany with him and the order had to be placed right away to ensure proper delivery time.

So in looking at we are going to have to dive into correcting our purchasing process to ensure that this type of error does not occur again. As even though he needed to place the order ASAP we are still a small company and the approval of the purchase would of taken no more than 5 minutes, especially with the supplier already being approved.
 
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T

texkb

#12
In this case the goods that were ordered were marketing materials and the person that conducted the purchase was our marketing manager. Even though he is the marketing manager he does not have the authority to bypass the purchasing process.
 

qusys

Trusted Information Resource
#13
In this case the goods that were ordered were marketing materials and the person that conducted the purchase was our marketing manager. Even though he is the marketing manager he does not have the authority to bypass the purchasing process.
We should know the scope and the application field of your purchasing procedure, if it applies to only raw materials, services for your organization or it also include other things.:bigwave:
 
T

texkb

#14
Our purchasing process applies to all vendors that supply us products. We describe products as [FONT=&quot]In accordance with international quality standards, the term “product” only applies to (a) product intended for, or required by, a customer, or (b) any intended output resulting from the product realization processes.

This is an area that we have tossed and turned with as to what falls into the product category. In this case I would classify the materials as product as the marketing materials is affecting the marketing of our product.
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Golfman25

Trusted Information Resource
#15
Our purchasing process applies to all vendors that supply us products. We describe products as [FONT=&quot]In accordance with international quality standards, the term “product” only applies to (a) product intended for, or required by, a customer, or (b) any intended output resulting from the product realization processes. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This is an area that we have tossed and turned with as to what falls into the product category. In this case I would classify the materials as product as the marketing materials is affecting the marketing of our product. [/FONT]
And I would respectfully disagree with that. Your talking about marketing materials which are support items. Including these types of materials in your purchasing process is cumbersome and generally unnecessary. I would think that the marketing manager has a program to identify competent suppliers (ie; designers, copywriters, and printers) and a budget for these types of purchases. If he is a "Manager" shouldn't he be allowed to purchase items within his budget? Why do all the extra work for marketing brochures? Good luck.
 
T

texkb

#16
And I would respectfully disagree with that. Your talking about marketing materials which are support items. Including these types of materials in your purchasing process is cumbersome and generally unnecessary. I would think that the marketing manager has a program to identify competent suppliers (ie; designers, copywriters, and printers) and a budget for these types of purchases. If he is a "Manager" shouldn't he be allowed to purchase items within his budget? Why do all the extra work for marketing brochures? Good luck.
Golfman thanks for the reply. I am glad that you respectfully disagree. I feel like we have been slightly overbearing in our purchasing process since our last audit. During our last audit the auditor found minor non conformity's in our supplier selection and purchasing process. Since then we have been working hard to identify which items actually are required to go through that process. The obvious items that go into our our part of the product realization that go to our customers are no brainers in terms of approval. Where as things like office supplies are no brainers in terms of not needing the approval process. But things like marketing materials and other items like that we were unsure of so we have been subjecting them to the approval and purchasing process.

You are correct though that our marketing manager does have a program in place to identify competent suppliers and a budget for his purchases. So I agree with you that we should not make it more cumbersome for him and other people that are going to purchase items that do not effect our product. Thanks for your input into this area.
 

qusys

Trusted Information Resource
#17
Golfman thanks for the reply. I am glad that you respectfully disagree. I feel like we have been slightly overbearing in our purchasing process since our last audit. During our last audit the auditor found minor non conformity's in our supplier selection and purchasing process. Since then we have been working hard to identify which items actually are required to go through that process. The obvious items that go into our our part of the product realization that go to our customers are no brainers in terms of approval. Where as things like office supplies are no brainers in terms of not needing the approval process. But things like marketing materials and other items like that we were unsure of so we have been subjecting them to the approval and purchasing process.

You are correct though that our marketing manager does have a program in place to identify competent suppliers and a budget for his purchases. So I agree with you that we should not make it more cumbersome for him and other people that are going to purchase items that do not effect our product. Thanks for your input into this area.
Hi Texkb,
I have understood your point and for that reason I made further questions to undestand better.
I do not know the amount of the cost of this material, but I have seen in other organizations that they reserve small cash bank to purchase things that do not impact the quality of product and that do not exceed a certain price ( very small, around 500 dollars for example). This purchase can be done by authorized personnel in charge of process owner and also for immediate needs.
This is only a sharing of experiences and you may want follow or not but I think that it is ownership of the organization decides what fits better for its own processes.:bigwave:
 

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Staff member
Moderator
#18
And I would respectfully disagree with that. Your talking about marketing materials which are support items. Including these types of materials in your purchasing process is cumbersome and generally unnecessary. I would think that the marketing manager has a program to identify competent suppliers (ie; designers, copywriters, and printers) and a budget for these types of purchases. If he is a "Manager" shouldn't he be allowed to purchase items within his budget? Why do all the extra work for marketing brochures? Good luck.
In some countries (e.g. Australia) medical device advertising / marketing / promotional materials are subject to elaborate regulations and codes, and thus not only affect the overall quality of the product (could include statements re proper use of the device) but also implicate regulatory consequences when they deviate. Purchasing control is not only about expenditure control, but also (maybe primarily) about ensuring that purchased items conform with predetermined requirements. Urgency is no excuse in my opinion. Tomorrow a logistics manager will override the established purchasing procedures because some product component is urgently required to avoid a halt in the production line. What then?
 

somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#19
Ronan E has brought up a very important aspect and is worth sitting up and taking notice. From the EU regulatory, I have instructions from our AR (Authorized rep) to always notify them the product catalog number for the product registration purpose. Regulatory is a very important element in the marketing material and the stuff that goes into it has inputs from Design, Regulatory as well as Marketing, though it is marketing that make first use of it. Marketing material should come under the document control system.
Now why do we talk about quality system, why do we talk about process and interactions that we have to identify within our QMS ?
It is precisely for getting all the relevant functions work in unison and to bring about the requirement of the company this is so much stressed about. Unfortunately many of us and at many times overlook its importance and blame one another for the loss caused by ignorance of this interaction of processes.
Marketing, Design, Regulatory and Purchase have to do a good process interaction to get the best output the company can use in case of the marketing material.
And I would respectfully disagree with Golfman25.
If he is a "Manager" shouldn't he be allowed to purchase items within his budget? Why do all the extra work for marketing brochures?
As a manager he has all the right to Budget or provide information to budget, and make the purchasing function "Purchase" the stuff at his required time and help in getting all the management signoff if necessary.
 
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Golfman25

Trusted Information Resource
#20
You guys are talking about the development of marketing material. IMO, that is different than purchasing previously developed material which is at issue here. Two different things.

When assigning tasks to purchasing, you really need to ask yourself what is their expertise? Most purchasing departments are paper pushers. So they buy on price. Some (very few) have actually developed robust process and acutally know the details of what they are buying. Assuming, your purchasing department purchases raw materials and components for assembly of your product, I would ask what do they know about purchasing printed marketing materials? Maybe, just maybe, it is better to be left to the Marketing Manager.
 
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