Procurement and Supply Chain

The Procurement Cycle is generally known as a six-part process, involving:

Strategic planning: ensuring the purchasing decision benefits your business in the long-term rather than only serving your immediate needs.
Needs identification: analysing exactly what is required in order to source the right product or service at the right time.
Tendering/Sourcing: Analysing the market to shortlist the best suppliers, or inviting suppliers to bid for your business.
Evaluation and selection: Choosing the right supplier and evaluating benefits beyond the lowest price.
Negotiation and award: Negotiating and agreeing upon contract terms.
Contract management: Setting up KPIs and milestones to ensure the supplier delivers to contract.

Procurement can bring value to your organisation through:

Discovering and working with new suppliers
Analysing your spend to understand costs such as over-ordering and duplication
creating better contracts
Increasing your negotiating and purchasing power
Driving innovation in the supplier base
Gaining other benefits beyond getting the lowest price, such as environmental benefits

Supply Chain

Supply chain optimisation means thinking beyond the farm gate because growers are ultimately assessed on what the end-customer is willing to pay.

Growers therefore need to assist other parties by sharing information that will optimise scheduling and maintain fruit quality all along the supply chain. This may involve:

Providing crop forecasting to packing houses to assist with labour scheduling
Using crop forecasting to order the right number of boxes
Helping purchasers (such as supermarkets) plan for customer demand
Reviewing transit arrangements to ensure your product reaches the end-customer in an optimal state
Using sophisticated tracking (IoT devices) to identify the good and bad players in your supply chain
Providing end-customers with data about the provenance of the product.