Description

The Purchasing application is designed to effectively manage all purchasing functions, from the initial identification of goods requirements to the final disposition of the received goods.  The Purchasing application performs two major functions:  Purchasing Planning and Purchasing Control.  The maintenance, reporting and inquiry capabilities provided by the application are organized by these two functions.  The figure below shows the relationship between these two functions and the underlying steps performed during each.

      Purchasing Planning and Control

Purchasing Planning

The Purchasing Planning function encompasses several subfunctions:

·     Initial data, such as source identification and pricing data, is set up and maintained online.

-     Item sources are identified by creating item/vendor relationships.

-     Purchasing data used for purchase order line creation is recorded with the individual item/vendor relationship so that it may be automatically retrieved during purchase order creation.

-     Price data is recorded through quotations related to an item/vendor relationship.  Several pricing strategies are supported.

-     User-defined comments are maintained at the relationship and quotation levels.

·     Requisitions are maintained for a part.

-     Requisitions may be created and maintained manually, or generated automatically by the Requirements Planning or Master Scheduling applications and manually modified or released.

-     Requisition covering is made more efficient by specifying a buyer code and a priority code, so that the correct buyer can cover the most crucial requisitions first.

-     The requisition amount can be controlled against a predefined maximum amount.

-     User-defined comments are maintained.

·     Vendor Allocation enables the automatic assignment of purchase order requests to vendors.

-     Item requisitions generated through Master Scheduling and Requirements Planning are automatically allocated to vendor.

-     Vendors' quotas can be calculated using the annual Planned Quantity or the annual Planned Quantity Not Accounted For. 

-     Purchase Order releases are automatically allocated to the corresponding purchase orders.  This can be done By Item or By Requisition.

·     Purchase orders are maintained online.

-     Vendor information, purchase order line items, purchase order releases and user-defined comments at header and line levels are maintained simultaneously.

-     Blanket orders allow periodic and regular purchases according to specific vendor agreements.

-     Manufacturing orders requiring outside vendor processing (subcontracting operations) are controlled using phantom orders.

-     Purchase order creation is facilitated by means of quotation, requisition, and manufacturing order searches, allowing the buyer to look up and retrieve the needed information online without exiting the purchase order creation conversation.

-     Total purchase order amounts are controlled against predefined maximum amounts specified for an item/vendor relationship, a vendor, or a buyer.

·     Requisitions, item/vendor relationships, quotations, and purchase order lists may be displayed via online inquiry, with multiple selection criteria available to tailor the inquiry.

·     Reporting features enable analysts and buyers to perform their different tasks using only the reports and data they need.

Purchasing Control

The Purchasing Control function encompasses several subfunctions:

·     The workload of the receiving and inspection departments can be planned using the expected receipts reporting feature.

·     Purchase order receipts are maintained:

-     The receipt process may be tailored according to the company's policies and special requirements for selected parts.

-     Receipts are validated against the original purchase order.

-     Simultaneous receipt and quantity control entries are authorized.

-     Attention is directed to production part shortages.

-     Quality control and related dispute processing is tracked and managed.

-     Purchase order releases may be covered automatically based on counted quantity.

-     Material rejections are analyzed using system-defined quantities.

-     General receipt information, receipt header, receipt lines, receipt parcel lines and user-defined comments are all maintained simultaneously.

·     Receipt status can be displayed by purchase order, part or vendor following multiple selection criteria.

·     Various documents and reports can be printed to enable the receiving staff to better follow the receiving process.

·     Statistical reports and inquiries provide a means of evaluating vendor and buyer performance.

Interfaces

The installation of several MAC-PAC applications is required before the Purchasing application may be used.  Vendor data and Reference File categories are maintained by the Common Features application.  The Design Engineering application is required to define and maintain the parts used by the Purchasing application.  Stock balances and inventory information are maintained by the Inventory Control application.

In addition, the Purchasing application provides interfaces to several other modules.  Planned requisitions generated by the Requirements Planning and Master Scheduling applications may be maintained and used to create purchase orders.  These two applications also will take into account any purchase order releases when generating requirements.  Vendor data and billing information are passed to the Accounts Payable application.  Purchase order receipt data is used by the Inventory Accounting application to determine variances.