The advent of the global financial recession, its impact on the economy with respect to market turbulence and the increase in customer demands have put organisations under intense pressure to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. By virtue of it not being business as usual in the business arena, organisations are forced to constantly devise strategies that are geared towards growth, transformation and continuous improvement. This cuts across all spheres of organisational structures, which means that every division has a role to play.

The master's thesis deals with the purchasing process of network trade within its information system. The thesis focuses in more detail on the individual purchasing activities that take place in the purchasing process. The aim of the analysis of these activities is to find critical points and propose appropriate improvements. The submitted proposals and changes in the information system contribute to streamlining the purchasing process and ultimately to effective management of supplier-customer relationships and customer satisfaction.

This diploma thesis is focused on reverse e-auctions and their utilization in construction companies. In theoretical part of the work are terms of purchase and auction defined and described process of e-auction. The practical part analyzes situations in construction companies by questionnaire survey and case study. Consequently recommendations for provision of carefree process of e-auction are proposed.

Thesis (MBA) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The purpose of this study was to investigate challenges faced by Supply Chain Management (SCM) officials in the implementation of the procurement process at the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Sekhukhune and Capricorn District as per the approval by TREC. The researcher requested the Head of Department for the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to grant approval to conduct the study at Sekhukhune and Capricorn Districts. The Head of Department delegated the Departmental Research Committee to attend to the researcher’s request. The Departmental Research Committee advised the researcher and granted approval to conduct the study at Waterberg, Mopani and Vhembe District offices, since the researcher is working at Sekhukhune District sharing the same complex with Capricorn District office. A qualitative research method was used to collect data which was collected using structured interview questions. Participants in the study were officials working at Waterberg and Vhembe District. The researcher was unable to conduct research at Mopani District due to the unavailability of the participants. The findings revealed that SCM officials are not adequately trained but are still expected to deliver service efficiently and effectively. The study further revealed that there is a shortage of staff and SCM officials are struggling to deliver because of IT Infrastructure network problems. It was concluded that SCM Practitioners are facing some challenges in the implementation of the procurement process at Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Waterberg and Vhembe District offices. The respondents indicated that there is a shortage of staff and also that posts which are vacant are not given priority. In addition, the IT Infrastructure Network problem was a big challenge to SCM Practitioners since they are without network most of the time while their systems require daily network access. The research indicated that officials are not well trained and that there is lack of communication between the districts and Head office. It is recommended that vacant posts be filled immediately after the post becomes vacant and that the Department should develop a communication tool which will be circulated to all SCM officials. Management at head office is advised to arrange iv monthlymeetingsanda SCM forum inviting all SCM officials starting from the lower level upwards to address challenges and update each other about the new developments within the Unit. It is recommended that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development introduce intensive Training programmes within the Department to ensure that SCM Practitioners remain well informed. It is also recommended that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development make a concerted effort to train top management in order to solicit their full support to the districts. It is recommended that the Department develops its SCM policy. The Department is advised to install Wi-Fi to officials working for the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development at all five Districts in order to promote effective and efficient service delivery. It is recommended that the Department should allocate all necessary Logis training to SCM officials before they get access to the system. The Department needs to work with Provincial Treasury on the allocation of the items which need to be procured e.g seed and seedling in order to speed up service delivery. It is recommended to the Department to appoint well qualified and experienced SCM officials to fill vacant posts, to offer training to officials who are already within the Unit and provide Bursaries to SCM officials to acquire long-term qualifications such as Diplomas and Degrees.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 57659.pdf.jpg: 19638 bytes, checksum: 9e5bd0c5201b6d99e3da4e91f332f1b9 (MD5) 57659.pdf: 509197 bytes, checksum: 7a7b5b23d42ea64ff6d345d627a0cf19 (MD5) 57659.pdf.txt: 218404 bytes, checksum: 81a61ea0397036f8654e17538664d034 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-04T00:00:00Z / Studies and researches on the reasons of the increase in healthcare costs tends to focus on a set of factors, such as the increase of materials and medicines prices, the new technologies, the aging of the population, among others. However, there are few studies that analyses the interactions between the healthcare system participants which may result in inefficiencies, or reveal the logic behind the exchange of values between healthcare market players and its rationality, in order to identify some issues which may contribute to the raising costs in the healthcare system, not followed by an increase of benefits to the end users. It is known that great part of healthcare expenses occurs within the hospital settings. Therefore this research analyzes some aspects of the hospital purchasing, in order to describe major aspects in the relationship between some parts involved in its dynamics, identify specificities of hospital purchasing, and verify some inefficiencies in the health care value chain. Four private hospitals of the city of São Paulo have been chosen and from each of these hospitals, an executive of the high administration, the purchasing/supply manager and a physician were interviewed. From the perception of the interviewees some inefficiencies were identified, as the dependence of some hospitals on the materials and medicine commercialization margins, which reveals the existence of a cost in the system not directly related to the real value added by the hospitals; the difficulty in standardizing the surgical materials that represent one the major purchase expenses in these institutions; the existence of supplier’s marketing practices that try to annul the rationality of the purchase; the difficulty to align the objectives between hospitals, health plans, physicians and suppliers, among others. / Os estudos e pesquisas sobre as razões do crescimento dos custos na Saúde apontam um conjunto de fatores, como o aumento dos preços dos materiais e medicamentos, os avanços tecnológicos, o envelhecimento da população, entre outros. Porém, poucos são os estudos que procuram analisar como a interação entre as partes que constituem o sistema de saúde pode resultar em ineficiências, ou que procuram desvendar a lógica de como se dão as trocas de valores entre os players desse mercado e sua racionalidade, a fim de identificar fatores que elevem os custos no sistema sem um aumento de benefícios aos usuários finais. Sabe-se que grande parte dos gastos na saúde ocorre dentro dos hospitais. Sendo assim, este trabalho buscou analisar a gestão de compras dos hospitais, para descrever aspectos relevantes no relacionamento entre algumas partes envolvidas na dinâmica da compra hospitalar, conhecer especificidades da gestão de compras destas organizações, e verificar algumas ineficiências na cadeia de valor da saúde. Foram escolhidos quatro hospitais privados do município de São Paulo, onde foram entrevistados um executivo da alta administração, um gestor de compras e um médico. A partir da percepção destes entrevistados foram identificadas algumas ineficiências, como a dependência de alguns hospitais nas margens de comercialização de materiais e medicamentos, que mostra a existência de um custo no sistema, desvinculado do real valor agregado pelos hospitais; a dificuldade em se padronizar os materiais cirúrgicos que representam um dos maiores gastos em compras nestas instituições; a existência práticas de marketing dos fornecedores que tentam anular a racionalidade da compra, a dificuldade de alinhamento de objetivos entre hospitais, operadoras de planos de saúde, médico e fornecedores, entre outros.