Assignment 1

Title: Procurement in Small or Micro Business Enterprises

Length: As a guide an assignment of less than 1500 words is unlikely to meet the requirements but no more than 2,000 words (strictly) inclusive of text, table, and figures.

This assignment is aimed at consolidating your understanding of procurement process in micro or small business in the light of the study materials of this course.

Requirements:

Write a research paper on procurement process of two small or micro organisations of your choice.

-Organisations to research

As a guide an organisation with less than 8 employees would be considered a small or micro enterprise. These organisations are to be physically located in your city of residence with no branch or part of any chain. Choose very small or micro organisations, especially those who buy with goods.

Select organisations in which you will have someone in a managerial capacity will agree to talk to you and provide the necessary information. Avoid using information from company websites as use of information from company websites may be misleading. Information supplied via public domain may not reflect reality.

Page 6

-Research Article

Download, print (pdf copy) and carefully read Svensson, G. (2002). "A typology of vulnerability scenarios towards suppliers and customers in supply chains based upon perceived time and relationship dependencies." International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics

Management, 32, (3/4), p. 168 for this assignment.

Body of your Assignment Paper

Thebodyof your paper (in addition to common items) to include the following headings and sub-headings:

I. Introduction

II. Comparative Profiles of the Organisations:

a. Brief description of the businesses (Type of organization, major products and markets etc)

b. Identify the position of the organisations in the supply chain of at least two major products they purchase.

III. Comparative (compare the similarities and/or differences) Procurement

Processes.

Discussion should follow the items listed from start to end at "Exhibit 2.3 - captioned "Procure to Pay" at p. 52 of your text book. Elaborate on the item of "Supplier identification/selection" process in your selected organisation in the light of applicable items of Exhibit 7.1 captioned "Supplier Evaluation and Selection Process" (p. 248) in your textbook.

IV. Procurement process and vulnerability analysis: Select any three of the five dependence dimensions as outlined in Svensson (2002, pp. 173-174) and discuss them with respect to one major supplier of each of the organisations you are studying for this assignment. Discussion should include:

a. Brief description of dependence

b. The degree of dependence (extremely high, high, not much, not at all) and brief description of your reasons, and

c. The level of precaution the organization has in place to mitigate the situation if the supplier concerned fails to supply on any occasion.

V. Conclusion.

Enclosures (If any). Do not copy any table from the text. Do not fax or email the assignments.