A Purchasing Manager plans and guides the activities of a group of employees whose primary function is to obtain materials, supplies and equipment; may also direct activities involved in obtaining services through contract and may arrange for sale of obsolete or waste materials; applies sound company policies and principles in building and maintaining an effective work force.

Planning Interview Questions:

How would you go about establishing a strategic plan for the organization?

Applicant should answer that he/she should align company plan with the objectives of the overall organization. Continuous ongoing assessment and evaluation of how their company’s suppliers are performing is very important. If the process of supply chain management has to be improved in terms of cost benefit management. As with other phases in the purchasing process, everything else should be involved…basically all the parameter’s related to it has to be included. The opportunity for the supplier to assess the purchaser’s performance, and the establishment of an open feedback system, will pay dividends for both companies. Problems in the supply chain are very often contributed to by the customer’s lack of understanding of its own inflexibilities or inadequacies. The monitoring of a suppliers performance can take many different forms. It will depend on the business sector involved as to what methods are appropriate. Because this process should involve both parties that is buyer and the seller I prefer to call it business development, but whichever monitoring methods are involved, the target is always the same – to improve the overall process.

Let’s assume you’ve been hired.  Your assignment is to maintain or improve current service levels while reducing the budget by 10%.  What steps will you take?

Here interviewer is checking for your managing and supervisory skills, so the applicant should answer that he/she would consider the following points before setting up a process to improve the service levels to customer and reduce the budget by 10%.

• What is the current quality aspects involved in this process?
• What are the quality improvement processes?
• Are these processes on a regular basis?

Cost

• What is the supplier’s expectation with regards to purchase of our product?
• Will the supplier agree to share the benefits cost from this product?
• Will the supplier agree to work within the profit limit committed?

Logistics

How is the supplier performing in delivering the products and services?

• At the right time?
• At the right place?
• In the right quantities?

What aspect of supervision do you find most difficult?
Applicant should be careful, because any negative thing answered here may lead to interviewer forming an opinion about the applicant not being able to do that job properly. If are given a chance to choose from a list, make sure you don’t choose the one which is related to supervision. However, in this case applicant can answer that being in this purchasing department, he/she would feel different types of employee’s behavior or attitude on unexpected situations would be difficult to handle in this supervision job. But given a time and explaining and analyzing the situation, am sure that employee’s behavior can be dealt with.

Tell us about your experience in negotiations.

Candidate can answer that purchasing in his past years of experience has been constantly surprised to see how little attention is given to assessing potential suppliers. It is said that prevention is better than cure. This certainly applies to purchasing. To avoid current and future problems from the suppliers, correct and proper evaluation and assessment of potential suppliers is needed. As with any new relationship, the objective must be to identify which potential supplier is best equipped to help you achieve your purchasing strategy. To achieve this objective, purchasing officer needs to check for the following:

• What exactly are we assessing?
• How do we apply this assessment to potential suppliers?

Assessment must be addressed in a structured way as planned. It usually begins with measurement against predetermined criteria. Purchasing officer must decide on what he/she is looking for in a relationship with their suppliers Answers to this question will depend on the Product Portfolio Matrix approach which was addressed in the previous ‘Make or Buy’ article in the series. The matrix matches the importance of the product/service to your company, against the number and type of suppliers needed.

If you can change one aspect of the purchasing process, what would you change?

Applicant should answer that he would like to adopt a change wherein buyer can use positioning and persuasion as tools to influence the supplier. It’s the same with Supplier Approval – used in the correct way it can suggest to the potential supplier that their relationship with the purchaser is somehow exclusive and privileged. This may be – or may not be – true. It doesn’t really matter as it will put you, the buyer, firmly in the driving seat in terms of controlling the relationship.

How to identify which suppliers are best for business?

Candidate should answer that the most effective way is to conduct a product portfolio matrix which enables you to effectively evaluate:

• Low risk products/services and High spend
• High risk products/services and High spend -
• Low spend – low risk products/services
• Low spend – high risk products/services

For example, a business may have high stationery expenditure.  However, as there are various many suppliers of these products, the buyer can review the market without risk to the business (high spend – low risk). On the other way, the same business may have a low expenses on a product/service which is vital to it is core business, for example an electric motor to support the manufacturing process (low spend – high risk).

The portfolio matrix and analysis of the product gives you an approach which helps identify the various  types and quantity of suppliers required in different areas, the nature of the relationship between the buyer and the supplier and the requirement to fulfill the buyer’s needs.

How do I find my Suppliers?

Candidate should answer that usually any type of businesses will have a suitable set of existing suppliers. However, new suppliers are good for businesses. Because of them there will be healthy competition and competence. If you browse and do some research, new suppliers can be found. It can also be found in trade directories and associations, exhibitions, trade press, competitors and advertising.

How do you categorize your Suppliers?

Candidate should demonstrate his/her analyzing skills, by researching on how exactly on what Purchasers are approving. The criteria for potential suppliers should be identified by doing a Supplier Assessment. Candidate should check the level of commitment and the capability of a supplier to become a valued resource to your company. It is essential that only those who can satisfy these requirements be considered as approved suppliers. Candidate should assess from their suppliers as to

Who meets their demands, and with whom they would want to build long-term buyer/supplier relationship. The particular system you use will depend on how many key suppliers, those vital to your core business, you will need.   It is important to have different categories of approval and to ensure that the parameters for each of them are clearly defined and understood. Sometimes, suppliers and business change for not good system, so its important to keep a track of what type of suppliers does they need.

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