Courses > Business Administration > Purchasing Applications

Become a more effective member of your company’s operating team by learning how to apply advanced purchasing concepts. Move beyond the traditional order placing role of purchasing by discovering the role of information technology, the basics of international business, and the principles of economic forecasting. Learn how to evaluate suppliers' capabilities by investigating their commitment to Six Sigma, statistical process control (SPC), and maintaining a quality system (ISO 9000). Discover the elements of a logistics system and see how you can use material requirements planning (MRP) to identify company needs in an organized and timely manner. Learn the ins and outs of inventory management, understand how public and private purchasing differ, and improve your understanding of financial statements.

In this six-week online course, you'll learn the basics of enterprise resource planning (ERP), bar coding, electronic data interchange (EDI), and electronic commerce (e-commerce). You'll also be able develop and communicate specifications, understand control charts, create an ABC inventory classification, and interpret a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.

This course will help you prepare for the internationally-recognized Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) exam offered by the Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM™).

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Tony Swaim.

Tony Swaim has helped many clients, colleagues, and students reach their professional and personal goals. He has been an online instructor since 1998 and has taught at colleges and universities across the United States since 1981. His focus areas are project management, purchasing, continuous process improvement (CPI)/Six Sigma, and supply chain management. Tony manages a successful consulting firm, and his industry experience includes 20 years of supply chain management. He earned an MBA from California State University, Long Beach, and holds professional certifications in six disciplines, including the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

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Requirements:

Completion of Tony Swaim's Purchasing Fundamentals, Internet access, e-mail, and and the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser.

Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Today, we'll begin with an overview of how computers and technology are used in purchasing. You'll learn all about various types of information technology, including electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic commerce (e-commerce), bar coding, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). We'll also discuss how to use procurement cards safely and effectively.

Friday - Lesson 02

In this lesson, we'll go over some information that will help you meet company international purchasing objectives. We'll explore the history of international business and purchasing, define key purchasing terminology, and define the participants. You'll discover how international business varies by key area, including economic, political, legal, culture, technology, and demographic.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

As a purchasing professional working with international sourcing and supply, it's essential that you have a solid understanding of the various laws that you must comply with. So today, to help you build a firm foundation, we'll discuss the major challenges surrounding intellectual property rights, product liability, and anti-trust practices. We'll examine specific international law that affects purchasing activity, including United Nations' Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU). We'll finish up by investigating organizations that can help with your international purchasing activities.

Friday - Lesson 04

What exactly is the world economy and why should it concern you? You'll find out today. We'll examine economic forecasting as a way to help you predict what's taking place in the world economy. Then we'll discuss business cycles and economic growth. We'll also explore gross domestic product and gross national product, and macro and microeconomics. Finally, we'll conclude with a study of economies of scale, the experience curve, and econometric forecasting.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

To fulfill your organizational role, you search for, locate, qualify, and obtain materials and services. An important facet of this role is making sure that what you buy meets (or even exceeds) company requirements. To do this, you must thoroughly understand what represents quality. So in this lesson, we'll define quality, discuss what makes up a quality system, review the components of a quality philosophy, and explore the quality organization. You'll also learn that high quality takes place when all employees are involved—using total employee involvement (TEI).

Friday - Lesson 06

Today, we'll take an up close and personal look at a few methods that your best suppliers probably use. These include Six Sigma, statistical process control (SPC), control charts, and process capability. The more you understand the nature of these concepts, the better you can represent your organization in buying high quality materials. We'll start by discussing Six Sigma and examining its define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) methodology. You'll learn about the nature of variation and see how SPC helps stabilize process. We'll finish up by seeing how suppliers use control charts and process capability to meet customer expectations.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll explore how to communicate expectations by using specifications. We'll start by looking at the benefits of standards and how they're defined. You'll see how suppliers successfully use the ISO 9000 standard to create a quality system and provide high levels of satisfaction. You'll learn the background of ISO, what ISO 9000 represents, and the challenges and methods of implementing it. We'll wrap things up by briefly examining each section of the ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Friday - Lesson 08

Purchasing personnel work closely with physical transportation, also known as traffic or logistics. Since your company is either directly or indirectly paying for transportation, you need a good command of the basics. To increase your knowledge of physical transportation, today we'll review each element of a logistics system. You'll learn how to use warehousing effectively, understand tracing and carrier modes and types, and to recognize the importance of an effective receiving process.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Many purchasing practitioners use MRP software to define what they need to buy. In this lesson, you'll learn the essentials of MRP, including dependent demand, bills of materials, and inventory records. You'll discover the various reports and schedules, and find out how to lot-size MRP orders. We'll finish up by discussing what's required to successfully implement MRP.

Friday - Lesson 10

Managing inventory can be a thankless job. When you have the right inventory, you probably won't hear much. But if you run short or have too much, watch out! Today, to help you maintain the right level of inventory, we'll cover the ABC classification. We'll discuss how to use the economic order quantity (EOQ) formula as a way to balance inventory costs. You'll also learn the basics of setting and managing an inventory budget, and discover various methods of controlling inventory.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Public purchasers are everywhere. You find them at the college you attend, the school your child goes to, the hospital you visit to see a sick friend, the police and fire departments you make annual donations to, and of course, at city, county, state, and federal government offices. These professionals are similar to their counterparts in the private sector. They try to get the best deal for their organization. In this lesson, we'll look at nine distinctions between private and public purchasing. We'll also examine a typical purchasing manual for a public organization.

Friday - Lesson 12

This final lesson emphasizes key financial concepts and fundamentals. Much of the information that purchasing professionals use—such as purchase price variances, inventory balances, and expense budgets—comes from accounting. So you need to understand accounting reports. We'll begin today by reviewing two vital financial statements that you find at nearly every organization—the balance sheet and the income statement. Then we'll move on and see how to financially account for inventories. We'll also explore the significance of cash flow. By the end of the lesson, you'll see why sound cash management helps any company stay on the right path.

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