Courtesy: Neha Shukla | News Source: hotelierindia.com
What is the most crucial part of purchasing in today's dynamic market scenario?
Purchase department is the back bone of hospitality industry. We bring the best from the market for our hotel. Compared to previous year’s market situation, currently it is far more unstable. As we see the trends changing every year, it is very difficult to a hold the rate for a particular period. Quality is our major concern and we try to get the best quality materials from the market. Ensuring quality, specification & maintaining hygiene standards, while procuring food products is the most important task. Purchase managers are also responsible for sustainable sourcing, which is a mandatory criteria in the current scenario.
What vendor compliance systems did you initiate for cost savings?
Negotiations are not only about bargaining the rates, but also working on the specifications. We conduct departmental meetings with the heads of the departments to discuss the requirements, which in return helps us in scrapping unnecessary products/items. We usually try to contact the manufactures and negotiate directly wherever possible to get better rates along with guarantee/warranty to avoid maintenance cost of the equipment. Also we check with the other hotels in the city to justify the rates. We conduct market survey to understand the market and the new products availability in the market. Where we can save cost.
Before we start business with any of the vendor we check vendor compliances as per our company requirements. We collect few documents as below.
Vendor registration form
Vendor Evaluation form
FSSAI Certificate
Authorized distributor letter from the manufacture
Collect necessary licenses/certificates.
And also we do vendor premises visit/audit. This helps us to save cost by sourcing material directly from manufacturer/authorized distributor.
How do you identify high-risk vendors? What are the various measure and procedures introduced to deal with this?
Getting the right vendor on board is critical. High risk vendors are identified by the category of the product they supply. Vendors who supplying fresh meat, dairy products and perishable items are high risk vendors. These categories are directly linked with food safety. Before we confirm any contract/purchase order, we check the process and we collect necessary documents from high risk vendors.
Company background check
Vendor evaluation
FSSAI Certificate
Vendor audit/third party audit
Collect related documents/licenses.
How do you train your team to follow procedures for smooth coordination in supply chain management?
All the team members are trained as per the company’s standard operating procedures. Roles and responsibility related to the job will be briefed at the time of joining and subject related to procurement like Market survey, vendor selection and sourcing right material will be familiarised by with in the department.
Do you use any kind of app or technology for purchase? Kindly tell us about the technology in detail.
As of now we do not use any app or technology in purchase process. Other than Material Control software. It is used for smooth functioning for internal operations like raising indent, releasing purchase orders and has multiple level approvals. This helps us in reducing the paperwork.
