Public sectors in the developed and emerging economies have been witnessing a period of intense change over the past three decades as a result of the development of free-market economy across the globe. In the UK, the public sector in 1970s (that comprised of nationalised industries) was severely criticised for being wasteful, and subject to political intervention, thereby making them inefficient systems for delivering public services. To put matters right, successive governments from the late 1970s embarked on public sector reforms. These reforms centred on increasing the role of private sector in delivering public services. Privatisation, the implementation of accruals-based accounting and application of compulsory competitive tendering in the public sector were some of these reforms. Public-private partnerships, including private finance initiatives (PFIs), introduced in the 1990s, were a continuation of these reforms. In the defence sector, various reforms carried out prior to 1990s failed to completely remove cost and time overruns in defence projects. PFIs were introduced to further rectify the failures of previous reforms in the defence sector because they were purported to provide better value for money. Defence PFIs are long-term agreements whereby the Ministry of Defence, MoD, contracts to purchase quality services on a long-term basis from the private sector (through the special purpose vehicle, SPV) in which the private sector provides all the finance required in constructing the asset that is used to provide the services. Value for money of PFIs is about economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The question, though is whether, Defence PFIs provide value for money as claimed by the MoD? The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of three categories: 1) accommodation, 2) equipment and 3) training of Defence PFIs by assessing the financial robustness (over a six-year period) of the SPVs engaged in their delivery. This research employs a multi-method methodological approach to gather data. Qualitative research methods were employed in exploring and understanding customer-supplier relationships and included, PPPs, PFIs in general (and Defence PFIs in particular), the public sector reforms that brought about private sector integration, 4 defence reforms, and Defence PFI policies. Quantitative research was used to collect and evaluate financial data on SPVs (used in Defence PFIs). Research analysis provided mixed results regarding the financial robustness of SPVs employed in the delivery of Defence PFIs. The profit margins of SPVs involved in the delivery of Defence PFIs relating to the category of accommodation were the highest. This is followed by SPVs in the category of Defence equipment and then by SPVs in the category of Defence training. Interestingly, the majority of SPVs involved in the delivery of Defence PFIs relating to accommodation have sound financial health. On the other hand, most SPVs relating to the other two categories have serious financial problems and therefore show cause for concern. Based on research findings of this study, a number of important policy recommendations are advanced to raise the effectiveness of PFIs in the defence sector and the wider public sector.

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The main proposition of this study is to examine Volvo Powertrain's procurement ofproduction equipment in order to find solutions that can prevent delays in futureprocurements. The conditions of the case leads to the theoretical field of supplierdevelopment, which emphasizes the advantages of closer collaborations between thebuying company and their supply chain. Through focus groups with Volvo-personneland interviews with supplier representatives, a step-by-step examination is made ofprior procurement projects. The knowledge generated from the examination is theninterlaced with theory concerning supplier development, which results in a line ofconclusions of Volvo Powertrain’s procurement process and the possibilities to takesupplier development into consideration for future procurements. Finally,recommendations to Volvo Powertrain is provided in the form of an updatedprocurement model called Volvo Equipment Procurement Model.

Background: Procurement as a main part in supply chain management is supported through information technology traditionally. With the usage of Internet and e-commerce technologies, procurement is experiencing a revolution from a conventional paper-based process to e-procurement. E-procurement is increasingly becoming recognized due to its abilities to improve the management of business operation, which in supply chain allows organizations to take use of Internet source to procure indirect and direct materials, and handle value-added service such as quality validation. However, although e-procurement solutions are adopted by many industries currently, no previous study is about e-procurement adoption in Swedish food companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the adoption of e-procurement from the perspective of Swedish food wholesalers. Through exploring the e-procurement adoptions with the aspects of benefits, strategies and barriers in three food wholesale companies, similarities and differences in these three aspects are analyzed to find the current situations in e-procurement adoption settings in Swedish food wholesale companies. Method: This thesis was conducted by using qualitative semi-structured interviews, and a deductive approach. Both primary and secondary data are collected. Three sampling examples are involved in for a multiple and holistic case study. Conclusion: Through the study of this thesis, the most important benefits with e-procurement adoption that Swedish food wholesalers can perceive include planning control, time savings and cost savings. With e-procurement solutions, accurate data information can better forecast demands of customers. However, cost savings could only be achieved obviously after adopting e-procurement more than three years. Almost all food wholesale companies use both direct and indirect purchases with e-procurement adoption. Also, independent portal or online trading communities are not the mainstream for food wholesalers. Swedish food wholesalers play the role in both buy-side and sell-side, and webshops are owned by all of them. As for e-procurement approach, wait and see approach with e-procurement adoption are more attractive for Swedish food wholesalers from a strategic perspective. Aggressive approach could be used for the food wholesale companies that are in development stage. After researching, the most serious barriers for Swedish food wholesalers could be low assurances with problems such as suppliers standards, services or delivery capabilities, two or more systems with overlapped functions, and unstable e-procurement systems.

published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

<p><strong>Problem:</strong> There has been a limited amount of study in procurement within SMEs (Quayle, 2002). In general, for all sizes of organizations, the procurement function has often been regarded as a transactional based function and plays a supporting department to the value-adding process. These organizations view procurement as a simple function of the entire firm (Hutchins, 1992). It is more commonly found that procurement in SMEs tend to be fragmented and non-strategic (Zheng et al., 2007).</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this thesis is to investigate innovation in procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> A qualitative research method with an abductive approach was used to conduct this research. A primary and secondary material was gathered from Sensys Traffic AB which was used as a case study in investigating into the innovation in procurement within small and medium-sized enterprises.</p><p><strong>Theories: </strong>The theoretical framework that was utilized in this investigation consisted of procurement processes, strategies, roles, and innovation.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> An organization can compete for the present and the future by placing more emphasis and priority within procurement in SMEs, developing the procurement department and employment skills, coordinating and collaborating within both internal and external members, forming 'win-win' relationships with suppliers, and proactively looking for ways to innovate. Furthermore, by specifically looking to innovate within these areas the procurement function can leverage itself and its firm to be able to achieve reduced total cost of ownership and higher quality products/services. These special areas which were outlined by Spray (2009) are new sourcing ideas, new insights, new partnerships and new technologies.</p>

A well-maintained bridge infrastructure is a fundamental necessity for a modern society that provides great value, but ensuring that it meets all the requirements sustainably and cost-effectively is challenging. Bridge investment and management decisions generally involve selection from multiple alternatives. All of the options may meet the functional demands, but their life-cycle cost (LCC), service life-span, user-cost, aesthetic merit and environmental impact may differ substantially. Thus, life-cycle analysis (LCCA, a widely used decision-support technique that enables comparison of the LCC of possible options), is essential. However, although LCCA has recognized potential for rationalizing bridge procurement and management decisions its use in this context is far from systematic and the integration of LCCA findings in decisions is often far from robust. Thus, the overall objective of the work underlying this thesis has been to contribute to the development of sustainable bridge infrastructures while optimizing use of taxpayers’ money, by robustly incorporating life-cycle considerations into bridge investment and management decision-making processes. The work has introduced a full scheme for applying LCCA throughout bridges’ entire life-cycle. Several practical case studies have been presented to illustrate how an agency could benefit from use of a bridge management system (BMS) to support decisions related to the management of existing bridges and procure new bridges. Further developments include a comprehensive approach incorporating a novel LCCA technique, “LCC Added-Value Analysis”, which enables procurement of the most cost-efficient bridge design through a fair design-build (D-B) tendering process. A further contribution is a novel, holistic approach designed to enable procurement of bridges with the maximal possible sustainability (life-cycle advantages) under D-B contracts. The approach combines LCC Added-Value analysis with other techniques that make bridges’ aesthetic merit and environmental impact commensurable using an adapted concept named the willingness-to-pay-extra (WTPE). The systematic analytical procedures and potential of LCCA to deliver major savings highlighted in this thesis clearly demonstrate both the feasibility and need to integrate LCCA into bridge procurement and management decisions. This need has been recognized by Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration), which has implemented a software tool developed in the research (BaTMan-LCC) in its bridge and tunnel management system (BaTMan). This thesis introduces readers to the field, considers BaTMan and the bridge stock in Sweden, discusses the developments outlined above and obstacles hindering further implementation of LCCA, then presents proposals for further advances. / <p>QC 20131029</p>