A survey of procurement strategy development in industrial companies

The aim of this theoretical study is to create a general framework for procurement strategy formulation and, in particular, present how to create and implement a procurement strategy. The framework suggested in this study will result from a study of various approaches discussed in the literature. The traditional perspective, as presented in the competitive strategy literature, finds the buyer-supplier relationship in terms of both parties competing with each other. The new approaches such as JIT, partnership sourcing and lean purchasing present quite a different perspective in terms of partnership. The central theme of this study is that, to be successful, the procurement management should use both approaches. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.