Buyer/Planner Management
Part 3 of 4

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These notions have a profound impact on how an enterprise views the purchasing and planning process, and the profes­sionals who populate that process. Immediately, the im­perative becomes one that only the "best," most-talented individuals can aspire to the role of Buyer/Planner. Essen­tially, Buyer/Planners are professionals who must be "grown" and nurtured by an enterprise, and not merely "picked" from the stockroom, the street, nor a competitor. "Who will be left? A few broad experts who see manufactur­ing as a process, not as a set of discrete activities or functions. Our brightest young people will choose manufac­turing as a profession and it will be held on a par with other professions, e.g., law and medicine."7

The implication is that there will be fewer professionals plying their trade as Buyer/Planners. Hal Mather presaged this notion as far back as 1985 when he said of the typical production planner:

"Production and Inventory control people are especially vulnerable.... As processes become more reliable, designs more attuned to ease of manufacture, and optimized sched­uling routines more effective than manual or simplistic MRPII type schedules, then the need for P&IC people will reduce even more."8

An overview of key elements of the shifting nature of both traditional purchasing and planning will reveal the critical nature of tomorrow's Buyer/Planner. The future (and some would effectively argue the present as well) will be one characterized by organizations that are fluid, competing around ever-tightening cycle times, and ones which are typified as de-layered and de-massified.

As APICS has been teaching for some years, responsibility and authority for local decisions will devolve toward the front lines of the organization, and away from middle and top management. That is, small, semi-autonomous and completely autonomous work groups will make local pur­chasing/planning decisions and decisions on how to move (release) materials from suppliers. What core of buyers/ planners is left in this ever-changing world will focus on long-term and mid-range capacity planning issues. The language will go well beyond the typical master production schedule, and will instead use complex forecasting and market modeling tools. Further, much more time will be spent intermingling with customers and suppliers alike, even to the extent that much of the time spent at work will not be "at work"—rather much of the planner's time will be spent off-site at the plant and distribution sites of custom­ers and suppliers in the supply chain network.

As implied above, the front-line workforce will assume the tasks of day-to-day and even hour-to-hour planning. The long-range aspects of capacity management will fall to those who coleagially plan and communicate long-term capacity requirements—top and middle management. This does not leave much room for the traditional playground of centralized planning organizations. To play in this league, the practitioner will finally have to acquire a long-range business perspective, as well as the skills to match: ac­counting and finance, information systems management, marketing/sales skills, and other attributes once only reserved for fast-track middle and top management.
Who is going to do routine purchase releases?

Buyers who have traditionally been the captive of the shortage list and have rarely gotten the telephone out of their collective ears or their behinds out their collective cubicles should be excited, and not fearful: again, front-line workers will perform most of the local releases from certified suppliers for not only production materials, but services as well. A major impetus behind this trend will seem unlikely to some purchasing veterans—the expanded use of Systems Contracting. This tool has been around for decades, and its use is theoretically quite straight forward. Long-term contracts are established with single source suppliers for materials and services. Terms of sale and logistics are negotiated well in advance of any anticipated release, releases are made by users (requisitioners) and are billed on a periodic statement, rather than the tradi­tional mode wherein an individual purchase order release is competitively bid, contracted for, and invoiced. The upshot is that purchasing professionals (as well as Ac­counts Payable and Receiving employees) are freed from the volumes of paper for individual transactions. Billing is electronic, and a third party financial organization (Bank, etc.) provides audit trail documentation and analysis ser­vices. The vehicle which sets this approach apart from its forebears is the "Purchasing Card" (read credit card). With time to focus on more strategic issues, the purchasing professional can now devote time to such important issues as supplier selection and development, working more closely with design and the like.

Continued

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