Commercial knowledge for technicians in purchasing

Role and objectives of purchasing

• Importance of purchasing strategies for sales and margins.
• Introduction to commercial key figures and their influence.

Interaction between purchasing, technology and suppliers

• The role of purchasing in product development.
• Influencing costs and conflicting objectives in product development.

Value analysis: reducing costs and optimizing products

• Basics for cost optimization and product improvement.
• Implementation of value analysis projects for savings.

Contract management and contract law in purchasing

• Basics of contract types, delivery conditions and warranty.
• Price escalation clauses and dealing with contractual disruptions.

Analyses, tools and key figures in purchasing

• Application of ABC/XYZ and portfolio analyses.
• Understanding and applying basic key figures in purchasing
• Evaluation of supplier key figures (e.g. complaint rate)

Price structure analysis: calculation and cost control

• Basics of price structure analysis: analysis of full and partial costs and considerations of "reasonable" profit.
• Importance of price structure analysis for procurement and the supplier's contribution margin as a basis for price-volume considerations.

Basics of material planning and requirements planning

• Introduction to materials planning and its importance for inventory management and material availability.
• Deterministic and stochastic demand planning as well as the associated ordering strategies (notification and frequency procedures).

The commercial procurement process

Phases of the procurement process: From the determination of requirements through the quotation phase to the order and order confirmation.

• Effective offer comparisons and negotiation techniques for supplier selection.
• Schedule assurance and control to ensure on-time delivery.

Strategies for reducing prices and costs in purchasing

• Commercial and technical levers for efficient cost reduction in purchasing and optimization of total costs (total cost of ownership).