Small and medium sized companies are important to the European economy and considered as the true backbone of the European economy, being primarily responsi-ble for wealth and economic growth. Further, the purchasing function of small and medium sized companies had become more and more important to firms within the creating of competitive advantages. Additional, former research emphasizes the need of companies to engage in closer relationships in order to survive in nowadays business environments. These three issues, - SMEs, its purchasing performance and the relationships the small and medium sized firms are engaged with are interrelated and therefore the essences of the thesis. The thesis is limited to the manufacturing industry due to the potential wide area of small and medium sized companies. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the purchasing practices of small and me-dium sized enterprises with a focus on strategic considerations and supplier relation-ships. The research project is developed with four single case studies. Participating companies were two small sized manufacturing companies and two medium sized manufac-turing companies, defined according to the definition of the European Commission. The study is built on a critical review of former literature and research findings within the purchasing area and the area of small and medium sized companies. The find-ings from literature review (frame of references) and the findings from the empirical study were connected in order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis as well as the developed research questions. In the analysis, the characteristics of SMEs purchasing process were outlined. Evi-dence for strategic consideration were found and the characteristics of the companies relationships where established. Small and medium sized enterprises have developed its purchasing performance po-sitively in the comparison to former research findings. By using business technology systems, strategic planning and deliberations and finally through building close and long-term relationships, manufacturing SMEs found a suitable ways to perform its purchasing activities successful and found its place in sophisticated supply chains.

The environment of medical industry in Taiwan is unprecedented rigorous. Except the finance pressure of medical expense billing and the increasing demand of the quality of medical service, recently due to the change of government health insurance policy, each medical organization strives for the rare resource and limited customer, not only start changing the type of the medical service, but also emphasis on improving the function of hospital management and controlling the cost. Formerly, purchasing simply means buying goods; but now, for the rigorous medical management environment and the rapid pace of innovation, purchasing clerk is required constant skill upgrading, such as leasing, loaning, BOT and outsourcing by contract, to obtain the use of goods and to satisfy the aim of demand. Additionally, the way to obtain the operation or ownership of goods is different from the former way. Contributed to the change, it presents its importance in business management. So, this research wants to investigate the relationship of human capital, knowledge sharing will, purchasing ability and purchasing performance. We applied exploratory and confirmatory analysis to investigate the relationship involved. The samples were purchasing clerks of hospital, including medical centers, regional hospitals and area hospitals. Out of 400 questionnaires were sent, the valid questionnaires returned were 114. Factor analysis , variable analysis, regression analysis were used to process the data acquired. The major findings of the research are summarized as follows: (1) the human capital of purchasing clerk is positive effect to purchasing ability and purchasing performance. (2) knowledge sharing will is positive effect to purchasing ability and purchasing performance (3)purchasing ability is positive effect to purchasing performance (4) purchasing ability has the mediate effect among human capital and knowledge sharing will with purchasing performance.

<p>Small and medium sized companies are important to the European economy and considered as the true backbone of the European economy, being primarily responsi-ble for wealth and economic growth. Further, the purchasing function of small and medium sized companies had become more and more important to firms within the creating of competitive advantages. Additional, former research emphasizes the need of companies to engage in closer relationships in order to survive in nowadays business environments.</p><p>These three issues, - SMEs, its purchasing performance and the relationships the small and medium sized firms are engaged with are interrelated and therefore the essences of the thesis. The thesis is limited to the manufacturing industry due to the potential wide area of small and medium sized companies.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to examine the purchasing practices of small and me-dium sized enterprises with a focus on strategic considerations and supplier relation-ships.</p><p>The research project is developed with four single case studies. Participating companies were two small sized manufacturing companies and two medium sized manufac-turing companies, defined according to the definition of the European Commission.</p><p>The study is built on a critical review of former literature and research findings within the purchasing area and the area of small and medium sized companies. The find-ings from literature review (frame of references) and the findings from the empirical study were connected in order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis as well as the developed research questions.</p><p>In the analysis, the characteristics of SMEs purchasing process were outlined. Evi-dence for strategic consideration were found and the characteristics of the companies relationships where established.</p><p>Small and medium sized enterprises have developed its purchasing performance po-sitively in the comparison to former research findings. By using business technology systems, strategic planning and deliberations and finally through building close and long-term relationships, manufacturing SMEs found a suitable ways to perform its purchasing activities successful and found its place in sophisticated supply chains.</p>

Nowadays, manufacturing companies compete as much with their products as with their supply-chain. Within the overarching stages of supply-chain, purchasing is a process that responds to the organizations needs of acquiring raw materials, components and semi-finished products in order to enable the execution of operations. Purchasing is an important aspect of an organization, having a big influence on its competitive positioning. In order to achieve better organizational performance, companies spendings are often separated into discrete groups of products and services, using a combination of supplier-relationship management, category-specific strategies and cross-functional teams. This segmentation is called purchasing category management, and is expected in many cases to improve the overall purchasing performance. Therefore, a case study was conducted with the purpose of investigating how PCM could help a luxury automotive manufacturer facing purchasing problems to improve its operational performance. This thesis presents a framework built on previous studies exposing what factors are linked to purchasing performance and explaining the concept of purchasing category management. The framework shows the importance of purchasing expertise, cross-functional work, clear organizational structures, strategic purchasing and monitoring of performance. The study identifies the problems the case company is experiencing: Lack of cooperation between departments; a troublesome purchasing structure leading to duplicated work and insufficient technical knowledge; a conflictual cross-functional cooperation between purchasers and engineers and lastly a lack of monitoring of the performance of purchasers and suppliers. At last, a discussion is held of how these problems could be mitigated by guidelines found in the literature and the use of category management. This study identifies a gap in research on the topic of purchasing category management. This gap was compensated through the use of complementary literature on the topics of purchasing and purchasing performance. / Numera konkurrerar tillverkningsföretag lika mycket med deras produkter som med deras leveranskedja. Inom de övergripande stadierna i leveranskedjan är inköp en process som svarar på organisationens behov av att skaffa råvaror, komponenter och halvfabrikat för att möjliggöra genomförandet av verksamhetens funktioner. Inköp är en viktig aspekt av en organisation och har stort inflytande på dess konkurrensposition. För att uppnå bättre organisatoriska resultat delas företagens utgifter ofta i diskreta grupper av produkter och tjänster, med en kombination av hantering av leverantörsrelationer, kategorispecifika strategier och tvärfunktionella team. Denna segmentering kallas för Purchasing Category Management (PCM) och förväntas i många fall förbättra den totala inköpsprestandan. Här genomförs en fallstudie med syftet att undersöka hur PCM kan kan hjälpa ett företag som står inför inköpsproblem för att förbättra den operativa prestationen. Denna avhandling presenterar ett ramverk som bygger på tidigare studier som visar vilka faktorer som är kopplade till inköpsprestanda och förklarar begreppet inköpskategorihantering. Ramverket visar vikten av inköpsexpertis, tvärfunktionellt arbete, tydliga organisationsstrukturer, strategisk inköp och prestationsövervakning. Undersökningen identifierar de problem som fallföretaget har: Brist på samarbete mellan avdelningar; en besvärlig inköpsstruktur som leder till duplicerat arbete och otillräcklig teknisk kunskap; ett konfliktövergripande tvärfunktionellt samarbete mellan inköpare och ingenjörer och slutligen brist på övervakning av inköparnas och leverantörernas resultat. Äntligen diskuteras hur dessa problem kan mildras genom riktlinjer som finns i litteraturen och användningen av kategorihantering. Denna studie identifierar ett gap i forskning om ämnet PCM. Denna klyfta kompenserades genom användning av kompletterande litteratur om ämnena inköp och inköpsprestanda.

An important prerequisite for successful supply chain integration is the ability to convert data into information combined with structured storing and sharing processes. The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate potential relation between supplier data quality and performance of purchasing of transport services. The output of the thesis generates evidence about the imperative to emphasize on the supplier data quality throughout the supplier selection process. A supplier data quality assessment framework consisting of 4 dimensions - ease of manipulation, accessibility, accuracy and completeness, is developed as the core product of this research project. The weights of these dimensions were assigned specifically for the case company - Cramo, to determine the quality score for a selected sample of carriers. A coefficient k1 representing the ratio of transport expenditure over sales was introduced to facilitate the identification of relation between supplier data quality and transport expenditure. Business units served by transport companies with higher quality data displayed a lower k1, consequently, paying less for the transport services in comparison to their revenue than business units served by carriers with lower data quality score. The framework developed is adaptable - dimensions and metrics can be added or excluded according to situational factors and case peculiarities. The application of the supplier data quality assessment framework allows for a more objective and streamlined supplier selection. It stresses on the overall costs experienced during the period of cooperation. The finding regarding the importance of supplier data quality in purchasing of transport services can be nonetheless generalized for other cases when companies strive for achieving better informed strategic decisions. / En viktig förutsättning för framgångsrik integration av leverantörskedjor ligger i förmågan att omvandla data till information, kombinerat med en strukturerad lagrings- och delningsprocess. Syftet med denna masteruppsats är att undersöka potentiell relation mellan leverantörers datakvalitet och hur effektivt inköpet av transporttjänsterna är. Utfallet av uppsatsen understryker vikten av att beakta leverantörers datakvalitet i alla delar av en upphandling. Som produkt av denna uppsats har en utvärderingsmall för leverantörers datakvalitet utvecklats. Den består av fyra dimensioner – Hanterbarhet, tillgänglighet, noggrannhet samt fullständighet. De olika dimensionerna är viktade specifikt för det studerade företaget – Cramo, för att fastslå kvalitetsindex för ett urval av deras transportörer. En koefficient - k1- infördes för att representera förhållandet mellan transportkostnad och försäljning. Detta för att underlätta identifieringen av potentiell relation mellan datakvalitet och transportkostnad. Depåer vars transportörer kunde uppvisa en högre datakvalitet hade ett lägre koefficientvärde (k1). Alltså fanns ett samband mellan hög datakvalitet och lägre transportkostnad i förhållande till försäljning. Den utvecklade bedömningsmallen är anpassningsbar – dimensioner och mått kan enkelt adderas eller elimineras utifrån rådande omständigheter i varje fall. Bedömningsmallen ger möjlighet till en mer objektiv och harmoniserad leverantörsbedömning. Mallen understryker även vikten av att beakta den totala kostnaden under avtalstiden. Kunskapen från denna uppsats kring vikten av datakvalitet gällande just transportinköp kan även generaliseras till andra fall där företag strävar mot bättre informerade strategiska beslut.